What Makes a Monster?
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: While visiting Sunnydale- for totally unrelated reasons- Angel and Cole are captured by the Initiative, prompting the Charmed Ones to team up with the Scooby Gang to save their demonic members
1. The Darker Kind of Hero

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

AN: For the Buffy and Angel cast, this is set just after the Season 4 episode 'Pangs', so Doyle's still alive, Buffy isn't dating Riley (Thank God!), Spike's just got that chip in his head, and Angel dropped in on Sunnydale to help out with a crisis. For 'Charmed', this is set somewhere between 'Brain Drain' and 'Black as Cole', so Prue's dead, Paige is around and living with Piper and Phoebe, and Cole's still Belthazor rather then human, the Source, or a god-powerful nutcase.

What Makes a Monster?

Angel looked back at the house behind him. Even though he couldn't see them, he knew that Buffy was in there right now, celebrating their latest victory with her friends, sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, having once again defeated a force determined to wipe out life as they knew it…

He sighed.

He couldn't go back.

He _couldn't_. The risk was too great. Just a few minutes alone with her, and he'd be trying to convince himself that he could stay around her without losing control, that staying with her was what was best for her…

He couldn't go back.

He turned around and started to walk back towards the car park where he'd left his car.

He could only go forward…

Then suddenly five men sprang up around him, all dressed in black outfits and carrying large, expensive-looking weapons, which they were pointing at him.

Angel only took a few seconds to run over his options; since he didn't resemble a wanted criminal to the best of his knowledge, that ruled the possibility that they'd targeted him by mistake, and, since there wasn't anything else unusual about him, it thus followed that they knew about him being a vampire. Based on their scents, they were definitely human, but there was something different about them that he couldn't quite identify. It was almost as though they were on drugs or something…

Then one of them raised their weapon and started to squeeze the trigger.

Angel didn't hesitate; he grabbed the weapon and yanked it out of the man's hand. He felt something strike him in the chest as the man automatically squeezed the trigger before losing the gun- it seemed like an electrical weapon of some kind, he thought, but he shook it off; it may have managed to knock out a younger vampire, but at his age it was hardly much of a threat. The gun now in his hands, he hit the man in the head with the blunt end of the weapon, knocking him out for the count but leaving the other four standing.

Angel didn't even stop to think now.

Ducking to the ground to make himself less of a target, he lashed out with a sweeping kick at the surrounding men, knocking two of them down before they could even fire. As the last two men had just started to take that sight in, Angel had leapt back onto his feet, grabbed the ends of their weapons, yanked them out of their hands, and then hit them both in the end as a finishing touch.

Angel watched as they collapsed to the ground in front of him, before he crouched down and quickly checked their pulses. There were alive, and apparently unharmed beyond a mild concussion, but they definitely wouldn't be getting back up any time soon…

Then something struck him in the back, and he collapsed to the ground, only vaguely registering as he fell that he should have kept an eye out for any potential threats from behind…

* * *

Riley looked down at the vampire in front of him. He still couldn't understand it; most vampires they'd encountered had instantly shifted into their true faces and tried to kill the humans around them after they'd been discovered. This one had done neither; not only had he retained his human visage, but, when fighting, he seemed to have attempted to stop the soldiers without killing them, only knocking them out, or at least off their feet.

_Still_, Riley thought to himself, as he slid his taser back into its holster, _he's the same as the other vampires in the essential regards._

True, the vampire had required almost twice as much power to go down as most of the others they'd encountered, but still.

"Ugh…" Forrest grunted, as he hauled himself back onto his feet from where the vampire had knocked him over and glanced over at Riley. "Next time, could you possibly get the bad guy _before_ he knocks me down?"

Riley shrugged. "Sorry; had to make a detour to avoid being seen." He looked down at the vampire, curious to see what it looked like. It was a tall male, with a pale, handsome face and dark, spikey hair, dressed in a long black leather duster, black trousers, and a black shirt.

Riley also noticed a couple of stakes under the coat, but decided it didn't mean anything; vampires were so aggressive at times he wouldn't put it past them to be prepared to kill their own kind if the need arose for it.

"Take those stakes off him and get him down to the lab," he said, looking over at Forrest. "I'm sure Walsh will want a look at this one as soon as possible."

* * *

"Damnit!" Cole yelled, as he hit the ground, rolled, and leapt back onto his feet, spinning around to face his adversary once again. Ever since he'd destroyed the Oracle while trying to save Piper, the Source had been sending progressively deadlier demons after him; this current one had dark blue skin, a slight ride along the middle of its head, and could both throw fireballs and create energy blades out of thin air.

Quite frankly, the bastard was tough.

Cole hated it when they were like that; it made everything so much harder.

As he got back to his feet, his eyes briefly met the demon's, and he grinned; it was evidently surprised that he'd managed to dodge that last swipe with its blade, and hadn't quite realised which way he'd dived.

Quickly, Cole raised his right hand, summoned an energy ball, and threw it at the demon, striking it in the chest just as it realised where he'd gone. His opponent briefly dazed by the blast, Cole leapt forward, grabbed its head in both his hands, and twisted it sharply, smiling slightly at the loud _crack _the neck made.

He watched the hunter collapse to the ground, and smiled.

_Good riddance_, he thought to himself.

Then the smile faded as the demon's body started to crackle and shake; evidently, whatever it did after it was killed wasn't as simple as just collapse on the ground. He didn't know what would happen once the energy reached critical mass, but he doubted he wanted to be there when it happened.

Cole started to shimmer away, his mind already set on getting him back home to San Francisco… to Halliwell Manor… to Phoebe…

And then the demon exploded while Cole was still in mid-shimmer. The sheer magical force of the blast sent Cole reeling, making him lose focus just long enough for him to get pushed into the shimmer like a boat in a whirlpool.

Tearing through the nether dimension where he always went when shimmering, Cole briefly couldn't tell where he was. Normally he was able to control where he went, but with the shock of that explosion to deal with, right now all he could do would be to try to sense something familiar and hope that it wouldn't be the Underworld.

Reaching out with his mind as he fell through the swirling greyness around him, he tried desperately to find some kind of safety net, something magical and powerful…

Then he sensed something. It didn't exactly seem like white magic- it reminded Cole unpleasantly of the Source- but he was sure that, if he halted a few hundred metres before he reached the source of the 'line', he'd manage to avoid running into whoever, or _what_ever, this was…

He grabbed onto it and, like a drowning man, hauled himself out of the swirling blankness, reaching desperately for a point some way away from the heart of whatever dark power he'd latched on to…

* * *

Landing in the middle of a deserted street in some small town that he didn't recognised, but which certainly wasn't San Francisco.

Stretching, Cole looked around at his surroundings, trying to figure out what his next move should be. He might just try and shimmer out, of course, but he couldn't be sure that the demon's energy hadn't contaminated his own in some way, and didn't want to risk it until he was sure everything was back to normal.

Walking down the street until he came to a T-junction, Cole noticed a cemetery a short distance away from his current position. He grinned; perfect. Nobody visited a graveyard at this time of night, to the best of his knowledge; he should be able to rest there and test his powers in his own time.

* * *

"Yikes…" Cole muttered to himself, as he looked around the graveyard that he'd found himself in. He'd never _seen _so many fresh graves in one graveyard; what was wrong with this town, had it been through a plague lately?

Then again, there was definitely some kind of ancient evil in this area; he knew that much. Maybe whatever it was had been active quite a bit lately…

But if that was the case, why hadn't the Elders asked the Charmed Ones to take a look at it?

Sighing, Cole crouched down to look at one of the graves that looked the freshest. He glanced up at the name on the grave; Alexa Capaldi, barely twenty-four years old. He laid his hand gently upon the grave, and stared down at it.

"I'm sorry," he said, eventually. "I wish I could have been here to help you."

Then a hand suddenly burst up from the grave, grabbed Cole by the throat, and began to throttle him.

Cole didn't even stop to wonder at what was going on; he grabbed the fingers around his neck and, exerting all the strength he could muster while still in human form, managed to tear the hand off his neck, leaving only the barest of scars.

As he stared down at the grave in horror, a young woman hauled herself out of it, her clothes covered in dirt and her features distorted into a wild, demonic visage with a large forehead and sharp fangs.

Cole realized what she was at once.

"A _vampire_…" he breathed, partly in awe. He'd heard of them, of course, but he'd never actually encountered any…

Then the thing that had once been Alexa Capaldi turned to look at him, hunger and fury evident in her eyes, and Cole didn't even stop to think; he shifted into Belthazor, raised one hand, and threw an energy ball at the vampire, striking her directly in the chest.

* * *

Belthazor watched as the vampire rapidly collapsed into a pile of dust, the part of him that was still Cole hoping that Alexa had managed to make it to heaven after her body's destruction.

Then he flexed his shoulders and looked over himself. Apparently Cole's worries about the explosion were unfounded; if there'd been any negative effects from that demon dying, they either weren't obvious ones, or they were just minor in the overall scheme of things.

He smiled. With everything back to normal now, he could just turn back into Cole and shimmer back to San Francisco for some time with Phoebe; the Source would probably take a while to select a new assassin to go after him…

Then blinding pain took over his brain as something rammed into his back with enough electrical power to kill a human.

At first he thought that it was the Source's latest assassin, deciding to just take him by surprise from behind, but as he collapsed to the ground, still intact, if almost totally paralyzed, he decided it wasn't; if it had been, he'd probably have just been killed straight away, rather then just stunned.

Rolling his eyes to look behind him, Belthazor saw a young man dressed in a military-style outfit and holding some kind of taser gun standing over him, raising a radio to his mouth…

Then blankness took over his dazed mind, and he lost consciousness.


	2. Visionary Friends

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**Samyo:** Much appreciated

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Glad you like the sound of it so far. Oh, and believe me, if Riley gets out of this story without at _least_ getting beaten half to death by Angel, it'll be too soon.

**ElvenPrincess01: **Yeah, Cole was pretty good as Belthazor, I agree. Oh, and believe me, when Riley learns about Buffy and Angel, heads are going to roll (Probably not _literally_, though)

**sired-by-spike: **Well, the Charmed Ones will be here soon, but Spike may take a while; after all, he only _just _got that chip, so the Scooby Gang won't exactly be ready to trust him to help them instantly, will they?

**Slash-a-holic: **Glad to hear it; I was a bit worried about the Cole thing. And regarding Riley… believe me, he isn't going to be an idiot, but he's going down nevertheless…

AN: I acknowledge that my portrayal of the Initiative may be all wrong, but it's been a while since I saw any episodes set around Season 4, I never liked them much in what I _did _see, and, quite frankly, making them nicer would make the point of this story irrelevant, in my opinion.

What Makes a Monster?

Walsh looked curiously at the two unconscious forms that were the Initiative's newest… 'captives', for lack of a better term. Personally, she always thought of it as a misnomer- 'captive' implied that these things actually had rights- but she couldn't think of any other term to use for them, and 'captive' looked better on paper.

Her eyes flicked from the vampire on one side to the demon on the other. She'd never admit it, but both of them genuinely intrigued her. Normally, she regarded every demon that came through her doors with just idle curiosity, but these two were something else.

The vampire, for one. Based on what she'd heard, it sounded like he was a fair amount old then their previous test subjects; most of them went straight down with one blast of the taser, but this one had apparently taken a normal blast with barely any sign that he'd noticed it.

Annoyingly, he also didn't have anything in the way of identification on him; the only things of interest that they'd found in his pockets were a set of car keys and an Irish claddagh ring, both of which they'd decided to just leave in there in the end; the stakes were one thing, but they doubted he could kill himself with a car key, and the ring seemed fairly harmless as well.

It was the other figure- the demon- that Walsh found really intriguing. It was tall, apparently male, with blood-red skin and black lines around its head, dressed in a dark outfit that seemed best suited for combat purposes, although Walsh had rarely seen demons wear something so… normal.

"Have we had any luck identifying them?" she asked Finn, looking over at her prize solider curiously, from where he was standing over the body of the vampire. Walsh smiled slightly at the sight; Riley always liked to make sure that everyone else knew when he'd caught a demon.

"Well, while I was checking the vampire over for any concealed weapons, I decided to check for references involving that tattoo on his shoulder; it looked fairly promising as a means of identification," Riley said. Walsh nodded, waving her hand for him to continue, and Riley picked up a book from a nearby desk and, opening it, passed it to Walsh.

Taking it, Walsh briefly scanned the book, before looking up at Riley with a smile on her face.

"The Scourge of Europe…" she said, grinning broadly as she looked back at the vampire with renewed interest. She'd heard a great deal of rumours about this vampire from some of their earlier subjects, particularly after the escape of Hostile 17; apparently, he'd been a 'grand-childe' of this… Angelus, she recalled his vampire name was.

Grinning, she looked up at Riley.

"You've done well, Mr Finn," she said, indicating the body on the table. "Get him fitted with a chip and cart him off to a cell; if he is who he appears to be, he definitely merits further study at some future date."

As Riley grabbed the trolley and turned it towards the nearby door, Walsh turned to the other figure.

"Do we have any ideas what this is?" she asked Agent Forrest, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Not yet," he said, sighing. "I asked around a couple of our other experts for ideas, but in the end I decided to call in Professor Delgado; he should be able to answer a few questions."

Walsh nodded in agreement. Delgado was a fairly new addition to the Initiative crew, but he had already proved his worth several times; a demonology expert, he could identify several of the rarer demons in the world within mere minutes, as well as revealing any weaknesses that could be exploited.

If he couldn't identify this demon, nobody could…

"Somebody call me?" a voice asked from off to one side.

Smiling, Walsh turned to look at the figure that had just entered the room. Professor Delgado was a tall man, traditionally dressing in a black business suit, with pale hair that was almost white, a neatly trimmed beard of the same colour, and half-moon glasses that were constantly perked on the bridge of his nose.

"Yes, we did, Professor Delgado," Walsh said, stepping back to let him see the demon in question. "This… thing… recently came into our possession after it took down a newborn vampire in the nearby graveyard. Can you tell us what it is?"

Delgado looked at the demon for about five seconds before smiling and turning to Walsh.

"Congratulations, Maggie," he said, his grin practically splitting his face in half. "You've just captured Belthazor himself."

"Who?" Walsh asked, blinking in surprise.

"A demonic assassin," Delgado explained, as he turned around to look at the still red form on the table once again. "Supposedly, he serves a demon known as 'the Source', that claims to be the most powerful being of evil 'magic' in the entire world." He shook his head, smiling as he studied the still figure for a few seconds. "Of course, that's almost certainly nonsense, but if even a fraction of the stories are true, than this being is one of the deadliest killers our world has ever known…"

He looked back at Walsh. "Get some surgeons ready to insert chip Z-7 into his head," he said to her.

Walsh blinked. "What?" she said, looking at him in confusion. "Z-7? Why do we need that one?"

"Because, my dear Maggie, Belthazor is capable of transporting himself from place to place at will," Delgado explained, smiling slightly as he spoke (That was the only thing Walsh disliked about him; he sometimes talked down to her like she was just a child). "So, unless you wish to have an empty cell when you go to get him later on, you'd better install that chip in his head."

Walsh was about to protest, but then just sighed and nodded.

As Belthazor was wheeled towards the surgery, Walsh sighed. She still remembered the arguments about the construction of that chip; it was designed to monitor the cells in the demon's body and generate blinding pain whenever something about the cells attempted to change, along with the usual features that prevented the demon harming humans.

She'd been uncertain about whether or not it was actually worth the effort and time that had been needed to construct it, but Delgado had been very insistent, and it had been made nevertheless.

Walsh sighed.

This was going to be a _long_ day…

* * *

"You're _sure _he hasn't called back?" Cordelia asked Doyle, as she looked up from her filing once again.

Doyle sighed.

"'Delia, believe me, if he'd called me on my cell phone during the ten seconds I was out there getting that folder, despite the fact that he doesn't have my number OR that you'd probably have heard the ringing anyway, you'd be the first one I'd tell, OK?" he said.

Slumping down in a chair, he sighed and looked over at her. "Was it always like this in Sunnydale?" he asked her. "You know, when there was more of you to rely on, and some of you had to stick around at the back while the supernaturally-powered guys did the hard work?"

"You know, it wasn't always like that," Cordelia said, looking over accusingly at Doyle. "I mean, there was that time-"

"GAH!" Doyle yelled, his hands suddenly flying up to his head.

Cordelia blinked in surprise.

_A vision?_ She thought to herself. _But the visions are for _Angel;_ why are _we _getting this one when he's not here…_

Doyle looked up at her, the vision apparently over.

"Angel's been captured," he said.

"WHAT!" Cordelia yelled, leaping to her feet. "What do you mean, he's been captured?"

"Some guys in a military outfit of some kind," Doyle explained. "Dunno what they wanted; all I've got is some people attacking him, hitting him with some kinda electric weapon, and then him lying in a room beside some bald guy with red-and-black skin."

"Ah," Cordelia said, sighing. Then she looked back at Doyle. "He's still in Sunnydale, right?"

Doyle nodded. "I _think_ so, anyway," he added. "Kinda hard to be sure, since I've never been there meself, but, well, it seems a fairly safe guess, given that he was going there…"

"Right," Cordelia said, shutting the filing cabinet and turning to her computer. "You see what cash you can find; I'll find the earliest bus to Sunnydale. We've got a brooding vampire to save."

_And a Slayer to contact…_ she added thoughtfully to herself.

She wondered how Buffy was going to react to seeing them all again…

* * *

"C'mon, c'mon, where is he, where is he?" Phoebe Halliwell muttered to herself, pacing anxiously up and down the main hall of Halliwell Manor, constantly glancing at her watch as she spoke.

"Um, Phoebe, you wanna cut back on the pacing before you wear a hole in the floor?" Paige asked her sister, looking up from where she was relaxing on the stairs reading a book. "You're not doing anyone any favours if you owe us the cost of all those panels of wood, you know."

"Well, I _think _I'm entitled to be a bit nervous, Paige!" Phoebe said, turning to look at her sister. "I mean, Cole _promised _he'd be here tonight, and-"

She suddenly threw her head sharply back as a vision hit her.

"Phoebe?" Paige said, putting the book down and looking curiously at her sister, who was now blinking rapidly. "What just happened?"

"Cole," Phoebe said, looking at Paige with evident fear on her face. "He was in a graveyard- I think I saw a sign for somewhere called 'Sunnydale'-, tackling some… _thing_ that came out of a grave… He turned into Belthazor, and then got attacked by…"

She stopped, her face clearly showing her confusion. "By the… military, I think…"

"What?" Paige said, staring at Phoebe. "Are you saying Cole's been captured by the _army_? What, now they've got a branch that targets demons?"

"He's not the only one they've found," Phoebe added. "There may be more, but there was at least one other guy taken in at the same time as him; tall, pale, wearing more black than Batman…"

She shook her head and looked at Paige. "Where are Piper and Leo?"

"Down at P3, I think," Paige said.

"OK then; we'll just to go down there ourselves," Phoebe said, She began to turn around to head for her car, but stopped and turned back, raising a curious eyebrow at Paige. "How's your orbing coming along?"

"Um… good, I think," Paige said, curious as to why Phoebe was asking such an apparently random question. "I mean, I still need a bit of work going very far, but if I know the area well, then…"

"Perfect," Phoebe said, grabbing Paige's arm. "Get us to P3."

"What?" Paige said, looking at Phoebe bemusedly. "What do you-"

"_Move_!" Phoebe yelled in her sister's face. She made a mental note to apologise later, but right now, she had to get moving to save Cole.

"OK, OK…" Paige muttered. She closed her eyes, focused…

* * *

And suddenly, they were in a storage closet.

Opening her eyes, Phoebe tried a nearby door, and noted with relief that they were in P3; Paige had been right on target.

She smiled at Paige.

"Nice work," she said simply, before opening the door fully and walking out, followed by Paige.

"Phoebe?" a voice said from beside them.

"Leo!" Phoebe smiled, giving her brother-in-law a quick hug before pulling back. "Where's Piper?"

"At the bar," Leo said. "Why; what's the matter?"

"Somebody's captured Cole," Phoebe explained. Before Leo could say anything, she raised her hand. "It's not a demon; they're human, they're from somewhere called 'Sunnydale' they've targeted Cole for no real reason that I can see, and they've captured somebody else."

"Wait- Sunnydale?" Leo said, raising one hand. "The Elders sent you a vision about _Sunnydale_?"

"Um… yeah, apparently?" Paige said. "Is that a problem?"

Leo sighed. "Sunnydale has its _own _supernatural defender, Paige," he said, looking over at his friend. "If the Elders are sending _Phoebe _a vision, then that can only mean that there's something going on in Sunnydale that their team can't handle on their own."

"And that's a bad thing?" Phoebe asked.

Leo looked over at her. "Given that they've averted at least _four_ apocalypses, to my knowledge, I'd say it qualifies as an emergency if there's something they can't handle on their own."

Paige nodded.

"Good point," she said. "So, I'll assume we should get there as soon as possible?"

Leo nodded. "I'll get Piper and let her know the situation. Paige, you'd better call your boss and let him know you'll be away for a few days, and Phoebe, check over the Book of Shadows for anything relating to the Hellmouth; we're going to need it."

"The what?" Paige asked, looking at Leo curiously.

"A direct doorway to Hell," Leo explained. "Sunnydale's built over one; it's the reason for all the mystical activity in that area."

Noting Paige and Phoebe's incredulous expressions, he shrugged. "I'll explain more on the way; right now, we have to get going if we want to help Cole."


	3. The Gathering of Heroes

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**ElvenPrincess01:** Sorry, but Adam will be showing up; however, he won't be the same Adam as from the show… By the way, good point about the chip preventing Cole from changing; you won't believe it, but I _never _considered that factor, it was only intended to stop him from shimmering. Then again, that fact also helps the story along…

**CharmingStar:** Hope this is soon enough

**Goddessa39:** Actually, it's the fourth season for 'Charmed' in this story, so that idea doesn't make much sense in this context, but thanks for the suggestion anyway. Oh, and you got my pairing ideas correct

**sired-by-spike: **Glad you liked it; I've only ever picked Doyle's character from the books, but I figured he deserved to be included here as well.

**El Chacal:** Sorry, they won't be in time for that; however, I _can _assure you this story will be B/A all the way.

**wackycavegirl:** I do what I can; hope this didn't take too long for you.

**seer-cassandra: **'Death warrant' is an understatement; if the Initiative don't get torn apart to such an extent that their parts spread across America, it'll be too good for them.

AN: This picks up just where 'Pangs' left off for the Scooby gang; e.g. Buffy _just _found out that Angel was in Sunnydale again and didn't mention it to her, due to Xander's unfortunate slip of the tongue.

What Makes a Monster?

"What?" Buffy said, looking over at Xander with a slightly shocked expression on her face. "What do you mean, Angel was here?"

"The bloody Poof was here!" Spike yelled, looking over at Xander in horror. "You didn't tell him about the chip, did you!"

Xander sighed and looked over at Spike. "I would have thought having Dead-Boy laughing at you would be the least of your worries, Spike," he said, before turning back to Buffy. "Look, we _wanted _to tell you, but he thought it'd throw you off your game if you knew he was back here, and, well…"

"Well what?" Buffy asked. "He thought he could just leave me in ignorance of the fact that he _still_ feels the need to come sneaking around in my town even though we're broken up? He thought that-"

The phone rang.

Giles reached over and picked it up. "Hello?" he said, listened for a few seconds, and passed it over to Buffy. "It's Cordelia for you," he said.

Buffy took the phone and held it to her ear. "Cordelia?" she asked. "What's this about?"

"_Angel's in trouble_!" Cordelia yelled.

Buffy sat up straight in her seat at that. "What?" she asked.

"_Doyle- Drunk in Residence and guy who has visions- had a vision of Angel being held with some red guy in some kinda military setup down there_," Cordelia explained. "_Don't know who the other guy is, but_-"

"Wait wait wait," Buffy said, raising one hand as she processed the information. "_Military_ guys? You're sure?"

"_Yeah, it seems like that_," Cordelia said. "_Why_?"

"We've been trying to get a bit of information about them recently; they've been tracking demons and vampires for the past few months and performing these weird experiments on them," Buffy said. Then she smiled. "They've even put this chip in Spike that stops him harming any humans!"

"HEY!" Spike yelled at her from across the table.

"_Really_?" Cordelia said, intrigued. "_Spike can't hurt anyone_?"

Then her tone of voice changed. "_Wait; couldn't they stick one of those in Angel? I mean, it wouldn't make much difference, but he still prefers to have the _option _of hitting humans, doesn't he_?"

Buffy paled. Cordelia had a point…

And besides, if they were harsh when conducting experiments on _normal_ vampires, how much harder would they be on something as… unique, for lack of a better term, as Angel?

"Good point," she said, trying not to show how concerned she was. "Thanks for the tip; we'll get right on to it."

"_What_?" Cordelia said. "_Sorry, I think you missed something; Doyle and I are coming down to check this out_."

Buffy blinked in surprise.

"What?" she said. "You're coming down here… for _Angel_!"

"_Hey; he saved me from a vampire my first month in L.A., _and _he helped me find this great apartment_!" Cordelia said. "_Besides, if I don't save him, where else am I going to find a job until I get a good acting gig? See you soon_!"

"Hold on a-" Buffy began, but then a brief click was heard, and Cordelia had hung up.

"Well?" Xander asked, looking curiously at Buffy. "What?"

"Angel's been captured by those military guys," Buffy said simply.

"What!" Spike said, looking over at Buffy with a wide grin on his face. "You mean they went and captured the poof?" He grinned as he looked downwards. "Somebody down there _likes _me!"

Buffy looked over at him at that, a harsh gaze in her eyes. "Whever likes you down _there_, Spike, you seem to be forgetting that there are at least four people in this room who _don't _share their views, and quite frankly, given that Cordelia and another guy are coming down here soon, you might want to start telling us more about this base before we decide to try something a bit more… violent… to make you talk."

She raised a curious eyebrow. "Any preferences as to what we have to cut off first?"

Spike swallowed, looked briefly around at the others for some kind of assistance, and quickly realised that he wasn't actually going to get any from them.

He glanced back at the very irate and extremely annoyed-looking Slayer.

This didn't look all that good….

* * *

"So, you say that this…. 'Sunnydale' place has its own supernatural defender?" Piper asked Leo, as she drove the SUV down the long road towards Sunnydale. "What are we talking here; a witch?"

"No," Leo shook his head. "A Slayer."

"A what?" Phoebe asked, looking over curiously at Leo.

"A powerful warrior for good, created several centuries in the past at the same time as the Old Ones- the last pure demons- departed from our plain," Leo explained. "Essentially, one of these demons contaminated a human corpse with their blood before leaving, and thus created the first vampire. To battle this threat, several sorcerers used powerful magic to bind a demon with a young woman, giving her the strength, speed, stamina, and healing powers necessary to go up against the forces of darkness in single combat."

"Just strength and speed?" Paige said, surprised, as she looked over at Leo. "What about when she's facing something that can throw energy balls or something like that?"

"Slayers don't really encounter our kind of demon that much," Leo said, but nodding in approval at Paige's comment, like she was a student pointing out a problem in an equation he'd written on the board. "It's a basic instinct kind of thing; we attract the kind of demons who naturally use magic in combat, and the Slayers attract the demons whose main power in combat is the raw strength to beat their opponent to death."

"I see…" Paige said, nodding thoughtfully.

"And this Hellmouth thing you mentioned?" Piper asked curiously. "What's that all about?"

"It's pretty much what it sounds like; the entrance to Hell itself," Leo explained. "Its origins aren't known, but it is known that just opening the Hellmouth may trigger the ultimate Apocalypse- so, naturally, warriors for good are always stationed on the most active ones to prevent that happening."

"And the current Slayer's stationed on this one?" Phoebe put in.

"Exactly," Leo said. "Her name's Buffy Summers; she's been the Slayer for about four years now. She took out a couple of particularly powerful vampires in her first year as a Slayer, and, so far, has averted at least three apocalypses." He smiled slightly. "With a little help from her friends, of course."

"Her friends?" Piper asked, a prompting tone in her voice.

"Rupert Giles, her Watcher- kind of like her teacher and source of information for all the demons she battles-, Xander Harris, general tactics following a rather interesting spell that was cast on him, Willow Rosenberg, their resident witch, and, until recently, they had a werewolf called Oz and a vampire with a soul called-"

Paige interrupted Leo at that point. "Whoa whoa whoa- a _vampire_?" she asked, looking at Leo like he'd grown an extra head. "I thought you said they _killed _vampires?"

"Cole?" Piper said, raising one finger as she spoke.

"What?" Paige asked, looking curiously over at her sister.

"We're meant to kill Cole's kind, but we haven't taken him down yet," Piper pointed out. "Why's it so hard to accept that this guy could be their equivalent of our Cole?"

Paige was about to reply to that, but instead just shrugged and sat back down in her seat. She had to admit, Piper made a good point.

"So, what's his history?" Phoebe asked, looking over at Leo. "How'd he get a soul? What's his name?"

"His name's Angel, and, to answer your first question, he was cursed," Leo explained. "He was originally a normal vampire, but then he killed the favoured daughter of a clan of gypsies. To make him suffer, they gave him back his soul, along with all the guilt and horror of every evil act he'd ever committed."

"Ouch," Piper said, wincing briefly as she tried to imagine what it must be like to have something like that in your head. "There was a lot of that?"

"Almost a hundred and fifty year's worth," Leo said.

"Oh," Paige said, wincing slightly at the idea. Having the knowledge of the evil that could be committed in _that _much time…

_Hoo boy_, she thought to herself.

"So, he's like Cole now?" Phoebe asked, looking over at Leo. "A warrior for good, even though he's… meant… to be evil?"

"Yeah," Leo said. Then he smiled slightly, as a thought seemed to occur to him.

"What?" Paige asked, looking at her brother-in-law. "What's the joke?"

"It's just that Phoebe's comment about Angel being like Cole is more accurate than even that," Leo said, smiling slightly as he spoke.

"What?" Piper said, briefly glancing over at her husband as she spoke before turning back to the road. "How's he like Cole?"

"He fell in love with the Slayer," Leo explained.

Piper was so surprised she briefly slammed on the breaks.

"WHAT!" she said, looking over at Leo in astonishment. "He fell in love with his mortal enemy?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Phoebe asked, looking in an almost accusing manner at her sister.

Piper blinked briefly at that, as thought she'd only just realised what she'd been saying, but then sighed looked back at Phoebe.

"It's not that, Phoebe; I'm perfectly OK with the idea of you and Cole, you know that," she explained. "It's just… the coincidence factor of the whole thing, I guess. I mean, the only two demons we've ever known with souls, they've both fallen in love with a woman who's destined to kill them, and now they're both in the same town?"

Paige nodded at that. "Yeah, I see what you mean," she said. "It _is _a bit odd…"

"Actually, it's not," Leo said, raising his hand slightly to interject. "Angel moved to Los Angeles a few months ago; he doesn't live in Sunnydale anymore."

"Oh," Phoebe said, looking back at Leo, curiosity evident on her face. "Um… why did he do that?"

Leo sighed. "It's… complicated," he said, looking back at the sisters. "Essentially, the curse on Angel's soul, for some reason, came with a clause; if he ever experienced perfect happiness, he'd lose his soul again. He found out about it, and decided that… well, he thought it would be for the best if he left Buffy."

"Oh," Phoebe said, as she sat back in her seat as Piper continued her driving.

She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Here she was, driving along to a town protected by a woman who, like her, was a warrior for good who'd fallen for a being that was meant to be evil…

And that relationship had failed.

Was that just because of their circumstances in particular?

Or were all relationships like hers and Cole's destined to end up in tragedy…


	4. The Secret of Chromosone Thirteen

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**onlimain:** Don't worry, you don't need to know TOO much about Cole's role in 'Charmed'; just that he's a demon with a soul and he's dating Phoebe

**sired-by-spike:** Trust me, Cole does have a soul; the show said so quite a few times. In fact, it's the main reason he came back for Season Five; when he was 'killed' the first time, his human soul gave him the strength to hang on and escape the Hell he'd been sent to.

**Girl version of Chandler:** Sorry about the delay

**pinkyblue-ice:** I try; glad to here it's appreciated.

**Guardian452X:** Thanks for saying that; here you are. Sorry it took so long

What Makes a Monster?

"Uuh…" Belthazor groaned, as he blinked his eyes open. He didn't remember _when _he'd last taken a blow like that one; what the hell had the Source sent after him this time…

Then he remembered.

It hadn't been a demon.

Instantly, Belthazor was wide awake, leaping to his feet as fast as he could, despite the pain in his side from where the weapon had hit him.

He glanced around at his surroundings; he was in a small white cell, maybe about four square metres wide and two or so metres high, with almost dazzlingly white walls, ceiling and floor, although one wall didn't seem to actually have anything on it.

Belthazor smiled. He couldn't detect any magic around the door; maybe they just hadn't gotten around to casting that spell yet or something. In any case, this should be simple enough; just walk ou-

"AARRGGHH!" he yelled, as he put his hand towards the opening and a massive electrical shock surged through him; evidently, this place didn't _need _magical protection to hold him down.

Yanking his hand back, he stared at the apparently blank opening in front of him in confusion.

What _was _this place? Electric walls? Stun guns? Who were these guys; science fiction geeks who thought he was an alien, or just weird?

He shrugged. Either way, it didn't matter. He'd just shimmer out, get back to Phoebe, and worry about what to do about this place then.

He closed his eyes, focused…

And suddenly, blinding pain tore through his head, breaking off his concentration and leaving him clutching his forehead in agony.

"GAGH!" he screamed, for the few seconds before the pain subsided.

He blinked in confusion at that. He couldn't _shimmer_? What was that about…?

He shook his head and tried a different tactic. That wall had kept him in as Belthazor; maybe he'd have better luck as Cole…

He briefly focused, smiled as he felt the familiar tingle of his molecules beginning to reshape themselves into the handsome human form of Cole Turner…

And then he once again found himself consumed with the agony and pain that had characterised his earlier attempts to shimmer.

"ARGH!" he roared briefly, before the pain faded. Blinking rapidly for a few seconds, he raised his hands and stared at them- still the traditional red; not even the hint of normal human skin.

"What the hell is happening to me…?" he muttered to himself.

"_Trying to escape already, Belthazor_?" a female voice asked from somewhere above him. "_You can forget it; that chip we put in your head prevents you doing anything that involves even the slightest displacement of your molecules unless we turn it off_."

"_And believe me, we have absolutely_ no _intention of doing that any time soon_," a second, male, voice put in suddenly.

Belthazor growled in his throat, and then looked up at where the voice seemed to be coming from.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" he asked, trying to sound as though he wasn't all that impressed with their trickery.

"_Our actual names are irrelevant, Belthazor; you can simply call us 'the Initiative_," the female voice said. "_As to why we want you, well_…"

She chuckled slightly. "_You'd be surprised what humans can discover if we try_."

Belthazor thought for a moment or two, and then looked back at the source of the voice in horror.

"You're going to _experiment _on me?" he asked, trying to conceal his horror at that. "But… but what about my basic rights? I may be your prisoner, but surely that doesn't let you just test me like some…. _lab rat_!"

"_Spare us the chatter, Belthazor; it won't get you anywhere with us_," the male voice said dismissively. "_Besides, I think you'll find that only covers humans; you're a demon. We can do what we like with you_."

Then the male voice chuckled. "_Anyway, it's a bit late to claim we can't experiment on you due to any 'rights' you may have; we've already taken a blood sample. Good day_."

There was a slight clicking noise, and then nobody else spoke.

Belthazor swore.

They had a _blood sample _of his?

He wasn't sure if demon blood was the same as witches' blood, but if it was, he had to get out of here _fast_.

If a doctor could turn homicidally insane with the blood of the _Charmed Ones _in his veins, what would happen if it was a _demon's _blood…?

* * *

"Oh crap…" Angel commented, as he blinked his eyes open and stared around the blank white room he now found himself in. He didn't know what it was, what he was doing in it, or who was behind having him imprisoned here in the first place, but he could be sure of one thing.

They definitely didn't have his best interests at heart.

"_Ah, Angelus_," a voice said from somewhere above Angel. "_You're awake_."

Staggering to his feet, Angel glanced around the room for the source of the voice. Eventually, his eyes fell upon a small microphone-like device in one corner of the room, and he walked towards it.

"Who are you and what am I doing here?" he asked them; rather stereotypical questions, he knew, but he was more interested in obtaining facts that worrying about little details like originality right now.

"_Oh please, Angelus; we'd heard you were intelligent_," a second voice- male, Angel noted; the previous one had been a woman- said, in a tone of exaggerated disappointment. "_Surely even your twisted demon conscience is still human enough to realise that the world at large considers you best kept away from humanity. After all, you yourself were human once_."

Angel sighed. _Great_, he thought to himself, _a bunch of wannabe vampire-hunters who don't keep up with the times. _Just _what I needed…_

Then he looked around again at the room he was in, and amended his earlier thought.

Probably not just wannabes, with a set-up like this… 

Before he could say something else, he heard the vague sounds of chatter from the microphone, as though the person speaking was trying not to attract Angel's attention.

He wondered if they even _knew_ how sharp his hearing was…

Then the link terminated.

Angel groaned. So much for possibly getting a bit more about this place out of those guys…

He idly scratched at an itch on his upper left arm.

And why did he feel as though something was missing…?

* * *

"What is this 'situation' you mentioned, Spiner?" Walsh asked, looking in a slightly annoyed manner at the young woman in front of them. Doctor Jennifer Spiner was the Initiative's chief biochemist, responsible for analysing any demonic DNA samples that came into their possession and examining them, the end objective being to find some common genetic weakness shared by all demons that the Initiative could exploit. So far, they had failed to track down anything, but Spiner was constantly insisting they were getting there.

Straightening her glasses, Spiner looked nervously at her boss.

"Once again, s-sorry to interrupt you, Professors," she said, nodding briefly at Delgado before turning back to Walsh. "However, I b-believe I have discovered something that you may find interesting about our latest acquisitions."

"In what way, 'interesting'?" Walsh asked, cocking her head inquiringly to one side.

"Their DNA is d-different, Walsh," Spiner said, as she reached over to a nearby computer and tapped a few keys. Instantly, two windows appeared on the screen, several strings of code in each one.

"This represents the DNA of a human when compared to a vampire," Spiner explained, as she ran her mouse over a certain sample of code in the right box- which, Walsh noted, was marked with 'Human' as a header; the left was, naturally, marked 'Vampire'.

"As you may notice," Spiner continued, indicating the highlighted area, "traditionally, vampires only have the basics in common with human DNA- the body is essentially the same, but there are always certain differences, particularly around the junk DNA."

"Junk DNA?" Walsh asked, looking over curiously at Spiner. "What does that refer to?"

"DNA that isn't necessary for the human body to function," Spiner explained. "Curiously enough, only three per cent of all human DNA contains the proteins we need to make us work; the other ninety-seven per cent doesn't actually appear to do anything." She turned back to the computer, continuing to speak as she did so. "There has been some speculation among our scientists that maybe junk DNA contains certain aspects that give us the strengths that vampires and demons lack, given that we have never been able to find them in any non-human DNA-"

"The point to this being?" Delgado asked, tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk.

"W-well, look at this example of the human DNA code," Spiner said, indicating the highlighted text. The two scientists examined it, but could make no sense out of it.

Walsh looked up curiously at Spiner. "This means?" she asked.

"Well, it's unknown at the moment; what's important is that, in all our specimens, we've never seen this strand in a hostile," Spiner explained. Then she stepped aside from the screen, and indicated the two windows now up on the screen. "These show the DNA test results of Angelus and Belthazor," she explained, as she reached down and highlighted a specific area of the two codes. "Now, look at _this_."

The two scientists looked down at the highlighted code…

And stared.

It was an _exact _match for the junk DNA code that Spiner had just shown them.

"What?" Walsh asked, looking over at Spiner. "But you said…"

"I-I know," Spiner said, sounding slightly flustered. "I c-can only think that, somehow, these two have been… augmented, for lack of a better term. Somehow, they must have been g-given some innate human quality in that DNA sample that other demons don't have; I felt it m-might be worth closer examination."

Walsh stared at the sample in front of her…

And smiled.

"No," she said, looking back at the other two. "I have a better idea; stick them in the training room for half an hour, and see what happens."

"What?" Delgado asked, looking inquiringly at Walsh. "What will that achieve?"

"Well, for one thing, we should be able to find out whether or not they actually know each other," Walsh said, smiling at the prospect. "We will monitor the confrontation in the main control room, and, if things look like getting out of control, we simply trigger the chips to ensure neither of them can hurt the other. Otherwise, we ask them both at the end of the half-hour if they are aware of the additional abilities of the other, and what the actual difference between them and other hostiles."

Delgado clapped slightly. "An excellent idea, Maggie," he said, smiling at her. "If nothing else, the battle should be very educational for us; we shall wish to be prepared for future confrontations with Belthazor's 'magical' associates."

Walsh smiled. "Indeed," she said. She turned back to Spiner. "Fetch some of the soldiers and tell them to transfer Angelus and Belthazor to the training room; we've got some work to do."

She grinned again, a grin that any non-Initiative observers would have called an evil grin, and couldn't suppress a slight chuckle at the thought of the upcoming battle.

_This should be _most _enlightening…_


	5. The 'Monsters' Meet

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**Teranika Meneldil:** Well, Cole won't be showing for a while as himself, but I'm hoping the Angel/Belthazor match-up will go down well anyway…

**pinkyblue-ice:** Sorry about the delay

**Panther28: **Yeah, I know what you mean; I always thought that was a bit of a shame myself

**CharmingStar: **I apologise for delays, but I'm really trying to go as fast as I can

**Sired-by-spike: **Yeah, I've been waiting to write that bit for a long time, believe me…

What Makes a Monster?

"Where are they, where are they, where are they…?" Buffy asked herself, pacing the floor of Giles' apartment anxiously, constantly looking at her watch.

"Buffy, chill out; you won't be doing Angel any good if you have a heart attack!" Xander said, looking up at his friend.

"Oh, that's easy for YOU to say!" Buffy yelled, looking back at him. "You've always hated Angel's guts; you probably wouldn't even _care _if we never found him again! You know, when I consider everything he's done for us, and how _little _gratitude you've shown him for it, I could… I could _scream_!"

Anya looked over curiously at Xander. "You disliked Angel?" she asked, raising a curious eyebrow. "Any particular reason for that, or is it just that the world at large would far rather have sex with him than with you?"

"Hey!" Xander said, looking over at her, insulted.

Anya smiled and patted his arm. "Don't worry; I'm still more interested in spending the night with you."

"Bloody hell…" Spike groaned, as he stared up at the ceiling. "Why is it that _all _the women are more interested in the poof than the other male company?"

"Meaning that most women you met when you were travelling with Angelus more often went for him than you?" Willow said, smiling teasingly at Spike.

Spike seemed about to protest, but, in the end, he just growled at Willow and turned away. Then again, he couldn't have done much else; even if he hadn't been tied up, the chip in his head would have stopped him doing much more than growling at them all.

* * *

"Seriously though, Giles; are they _ever _going to turn up?" Buffy asked, looking over at her Watcher as she spoke. "I'm no expert when it comes to math, but it can't take them _this _long to get from L.A. to here, right?"

"Well, there are all kinds of variable factors involved, you know, Buffy," Giles said, taking his glasses off and rubbing them, evidently more than slightly flustered by his Slayer's impatience. "The traffic, their car, how they are as drivers…"

"We're here!" Cordelia's voice suddenly cried out as she entered Giles' apartment, followed closely by a tall, slightly older man with pale skin who the others could only assume was the 'Doyle' she'd mentioned earlier.

Looking around at the others. "So, the gang's all here, huh?" she asked, smiling.

Then a thought occurred to her. "Where's Oz?"

"Oh… he, uh, he left," Willow said, looking sheepishly at her old friend.

Cordelia blinked in surprise as she looked at the redhead. "He _left_!" she asked, sounding almost sorry for her old nemesis. "Why?"

"He, uh, wanted to learn how to control his inner wolf," Willow explained sheepishly. "This other werewolf had tried to make him her mate, and he, uh, wanted to figure out how to control the wolf to stop someone else like her getting under his skin so much."

"Oh," Cordelia said, uncertain how to proceed.

* * *

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, and then Doyle coughed politely.

"So, uh, anyone going to introduce me?" he asked, looking around at the others in the room.

"Oh yeah, sorry," Cordelia said, looking back at him before turning to face the others. "Everyone, this is Doyle, our resident link to the Powers That Be; he receives migraine-inducing visions of people in trouble, we help them deal with the trouble, and, if all goes well, we get some money out of it." She shrugged. "Of course, sometimes it's a charity case, but there's always the occasional rich person in peril as well."

She looked back at Doyle. "To give you the essentials, the redhead's Willow, the old guy's Giles, the dork's Xander-"

"Hey!" Xander cried out indignantly, but Cordelia just ignored him and continued talking.

"-the blonde's Buffy, the other woman's an ex-demon called Anya, and…" She winced as she looked at the fourth male in the room. "And you already know who Spike is."

"Oh yeah," Doyle said, nodding in recognition as he looked at the platinum-haired vampire. "So, hear you're neutered now?"

"Oh shut up, you Irish twat," Spike grunted, turning his head around to look at the wall.

* * *

Buffy looked at the new arrival curiously. He seemed pleasant enough company- and the fact that he apparently helped Angel out in his new profession was also a good factor for her- but there was something about him that seemed… off, she supposed was the best term.

Still, she supposed that, if he was somehow managing to cope with Cordelia on a long-term basis, he must have _some _kind of superpower, right?

Plus, well, the visions and all.

Shrugging off that train of thought, she looked over curiously at Doyle, realising there was something she'd almost missed earlier.

"You know Spike?" she asked him. "How?"

Cordelia blinked in surprise. "Oz never mentioned it?" she asked.

"Mentioned what?" Willow asked, looking over curiously at the ex-cheerleader.

"The fact that Spike tortured Angel for a few hours to try and get the Gem of Amara when you sent it to him?" Doyle said, looking inquiringly over at Buffy. "He honestly never told ya?"

Buffy blinked briefly at that statement. Then she turned around to look at Spike, her expression suddenly overwhelmed by rage at the currently helpless vampire.

"You _WHAT_!" she yelled at him, causing the others in the room to rapidly turn around and try to ignore the voice that was suddenly tearing through the air. "We gave you Wheaties for your blood, and you tried to kill Angel to get a stupid _RING_!"

Spike swallowed nervously as Buffy started to walk slowly towards him, glexing her fingers as though wanting to tighten them around his throat, none of the others even seeming slightly prepared to stop her…

There was a knock at the door.

* * *

"Are you _sure _you've got the right place, Leo?" Phoebe asked, looking over at the Whitelighter as the three of them gathered around the door to the apartment. "I mean, this doesn't look like the home of anyone who'd fight demons for a living."

"And the manor does?" Paige asked, looking over at her sister quizzically.

Phoebe nodded. "Good point."

The door opened and a man looked out at them. He looked to be about ten years older than any of the sisters, in his early to mid- forties, wearing simple round glasses and dressed in grey slacks and black trousers and shoes, with a slightly receding hairline around his temples.

"Yes?" he said, looking at them curiously.

"Mr Rupert Giles?" Leo asked. The sisters had decided on the way down that he should be the one to take charge of the situation; after all, he at least knew a bit more about what kind of powers and abilities Sunnydale's defenders possessed.

"Yes, that's me," Giles said, raising a curious eyebrow. "And you are?"

"Leo Wyatt," Leo said, holding out his right hand as he indicated the sisters with his left. "This is my wife, Piper Halliwell, and her sisters, Phoebe and Paige. We have a… situation, shall we say… and we think you can help us with it."

"Really?" Giles said, sounding a bit curious despite himself, but doing a good job at concealing it. "Well, I'm afraid I don't know how I can help you; I haven't had an actual job since the school I worked at was blown up at the graduation party, and, well-"

* * *

Phoebe sighed; this wasn't getting them anywhere.

"It's a magical situation, Mr Giles," she said to him. "We know you're the Watcher to the Slayer, we know you have a witch in your group, we know that you used to have a werewolf and a vampire, and we need your help right now; a friend of ours is in trouble and you may be the only people who can help us."

Noting her sister's expressions, Phoebe shrugged. "Hey; the indirect approach wasn't working out, in case you didn't notice. What else were we going to do?"

* * *

Giles blinked in surprise at that outburst.

_They _know He thought to himself. _They know about us? How?_

He was instantly on the mental offensive, running through his options as he stared at the three women and one man standing in front of him, all looking anxiously at him as they waited for his decision. In most cases, he'd automatically assume they were demons or vampires trying to take them by surprise, but he doubted that was the case here; for one thing, it had taken so long for Cordelia and Doyle to get here that it was now daylight outside, so if the four of them were vampires they'd be dust right now.

The demon option was a possibility, but Giles doubted it; very few demons would actually try a stealthy approach where the Slayer was concerned, most just being so confident in their powers that they didn't even bother to come up with a decent plan of attack.

Besides…

Well, after their experience with Angel and Angelus, the entire gang had become pretty good at noticing the difference between something with a soul and without one, and the four people in front of him…

Well, their eyes held the familiar gleam that indicated the crucial difference between the man and the vampire.

Giles made his decision.

"If you come in, I'll be expecting a full explanation of how you know about us and what you need our assistance with," he said to them.

The one who'd revealed their knowledge- Phoebe, he recalled her name was- nodded.

"Sure thing," she said to him.

Giles sighed. _I hope I don't regret this…_ he thought to himself, as he stepped aside to allow them access to his apartment.

* * *

Angel started at the small bag of blood in his hand and sighed. This was just pathetic; you'd have to be a newborn not to know this stuff was drugged up to the nines, and he was in no mood to get knocked out.

_Honestly… give these guys a hand at the beginning and get captured by them at their end_, he thought to himself. _What a way to go…_

He knew it was a long shot that these guys were connected to that 'Demon Research Initiative' that he'd been… 'recruited' by in 1943 to get that sub back, but, the way he saw it, the odds of there being another organisation on this scale that was dedicated to investigating demons was a bit of a long shot, whatever way he looked at it.

He suddenly heard someone starting to walk towards his 'cell', and looked up to see who it was.

It was two young men, apparently about college age, dressed in combat fatigues and carrying the taser weapons that had stunned Angel last night. In fact, now that Angel saw their faces, he recognised them from the team that had captured him last night…

He froze.

He'd seen one of them before that.

The one on the right; the tall, blond-haired one that made him think of a couple of farmers he'd killed in his time as Angelus. He'd seen him last night, talking to Buffy while she'd shown every appearance of enjoying the conversation…

_Oh shit_, Angel thought to himself.

Then he smiled. Now that he thought about it, maybe he could use that to his advantage later on…

"Get up, freak," the farm-lookalike said, raising his gun. "You've got an appointment in the Auditorium."

Angel rolled his eyes. Did that guy think he was being _intimidating _or something? Honestly, _Xander_ was more intimidating than this guy, and he _didn't _have the so-called 'benefit' of military training to help him.

Still, he wasn't interested in getting zapped by those guns again. Throwing the bag of blood off to one side, he stood up, stretched slightly, and waited a few moments until the shield in front of the cell went down.

Walking out of the cell, Angel was positioned in front of the two men and, tasers pointing at his back, was made to walk forward, all the while wondering what all this was about.

Eventually, the other man (The one Angel _hadn't_ seen talking to Buffy) spoke.

"You know, you should count yourself lucky, freak," he said to Angel, contempt filling his voice. "Most of your kind that we get in here don't do anything more interesting than die. At least _you'll _actually be able to help us in a way that you'll enjoy."

Angel didn't reply. It wasn't worth it; something told him that they'd just hit him for 'daring to speak to his betters' or some disgustingly elitist remark like that. At least the Scoobies actually treated demons with respect; he got the impression these guys thought demons as a whole weren't worth the air they… He checked himself, realising that didn't technically include him, and amended the thought to 'space they occupied'.

"Here we are," the 'farmer' said, stopping in front of a large metal door and tapping some buttons on a panel beside it. The door opened, and Angel, the guns still pointing at his back, was slowly pushed through the door.

As soon as he was in, the door shut behind him, the soldiers on the other side. Looking around himself, Angel realised that he was in what looked like some kind of training room; there was no actual furniture within it, but there were several targets on the walls and empty racks that looked like they normally hold some kind of gun on the walls.

_But what am I doing here?_ Angel asked himself, looking around as he tried to find a clue. True, baring the door that he'd come in by and another door opposite, the room didn't seem to have any visible means of entry or exit, but they couldn't just have transferred him to another cell; this seemed too elaborate for that. There was something else going on here…

* * *

"GAGH!" Belthazor yelled, as another searing burst of pain spread across his temples, thwarting his efforts to shimmer yet again. He was starting to get sick of this; after nearly a century, was _this _how his sins were going to catch up with him? By sticking him in some cell to live with his memories until he died or was killed by these guys twisted experiments?

_Well, it could be worse…_ he thought to himself.

Then two men carrying what looked like more of those taser guns appeared in front of his 'cell', aiming the weapons at him as the energy wall separating them fell.

_It's worse_, Belthazor thought to himself. Given his current depleted condition, lacking both his shimmering power and his energy balls, he doubted he'd manage to last in a fight for very long, especially given the firepower those guns seemed to possess.

But, to his relief, they didn't seem to want to kill him. Based on their gestures (Based on their earlier attitudes, he was prepared to bet they considered themselves superior to demons, so didn't think him worth talking to), they wanted him to walk in front of them, presumably to take him somewhere else.

Sighing, Belthazor stood up and began to walk; even if it was just another cell, at least he'd probably get some exercise. Getting up, he began to walk along, the guns in his back. Neither of the two men even bothered to talk to him, although Belthazor wished they would; not out of a need for conversation, but mainly just to find out how they regarded him. Scum, a threat, or what?

Then he reached a large metal door, a code was entered on one side, and he was shoved through it before it slammed behind him.

He briefly scanned his surroundings- some kind of training room, but devoid of the weaponry that he would have expected such a place to have- and then his eyes fell on the only other person in the room; a handsome man, apparently in his late twenties, dressed in a black leather duster, black trousers, and a dark red shirt. His heightened senses recognised the man as a vampire, but he identified the man's face from memory.

"Angelus," he said, loud enough for the vampire to hear.

The vampire looked back at him and shifted into its demon face, fangs bared.

"Belthazor…" the Scourge of Europe said, growling in his throat.


	6. A Meeting of Legends

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**sired-by-spike:** Here you are, but don't feel obligated to send the cookie

**mysticallove: **Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long

**lady marauder:** Yeah, I know what you mean; I've always wanted to see a fight between these guys myself.

**pinkyblue-ice: **Here you are

**Magic-Amethyst80:** Yeah, I know, and I'm going to be trying to explain those in the course of the story.

**Maricole:** They only know each other by reputation, which is the main cause of the problem…

**Aussiehottiemjm: **Just because Cole hasn't _met _any vampires doesn't mean he doesn't _know _of them; it's like us not having personally met any celebrities, but we still know of them nevertheless

**TygerC:** Thanks for asking; here you are

What Makes a Monster?

As the four strangers entered the room, the newly-expanded Scooby gang (Minus Spike, who Buffy and Xander had transferred to a closet to avoid any awkward questions) could, for the moment, only look at them and wonder who they were. None of them exactly looked like Giles's normal kind of company; the women all seemed a bit younger than the usual kind of people that were associated with the Watcher's Council, and the man certainly didn't look like any of the other men from the Council that they'd met in the past.

For one thing, he wasn't wearing a suit; he was dressed casually in jeans and a red-and-white checked shirt, and had a pleasant, young face, apparently in his mid- to late thirties. Cordelia- the only woman who actually _would _be interested, Willow still recovering from her recent break-up while Buffy was just worried about Angel- checked his left hand, and was only mildly disappointed to see a wedding ring there; even if he hadn't been single, he was a bit old for her.

The other half of the relationship was evidently one of the three women in the group; specifically, a fairly short, beautiful woman with long brown hair and an authoritive stance, dressed in cream trousers and dark green pullover.

The other two women were each just as breathtaking as… well, the Scoobies could only assume they were the first woman's sisters; there was a distinct family resemblance, but that could be only a coincidence.

One, apparently the youngest of the three, had shoulder-length dark hair and skin that was so strikingly pale she could have been taken for a vampire if it wasn't for the fact that she was in the sunlight, dressed in black trousers and a white blouse.

The other had darker skin than either of her 'sisters', as well as slightly shorter brown hair with some blonde highlights, and was wearing a pair of red leather pants and a black wide-necked T-shirt.

After a few seconds of awkward silence as the two groups looked at each other, Xander broke the silence.

"So, G-man, care to tell us who these guys are?" he asked, briefly staring at the women before Anya gave him a polite tap on the shoulder to remind him of her presence.

"Well, um…" Giles began, before the darker-skinned sister stepped forward and began to talk.

"I'll make this simple," she said, looking around at the others. "My name's Phoebe Halliwell, my sisters are Piper Halliwell-Wyatt and Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt's Piper's husband, my sisters and I are witches, and we need your help to find my boyfriend who we believe is being held captive by some military organisation somewhere here."

* * *

Buffy blinked in surprise at that.

_What are the odds?_ She thought to herself. _I've got a boyfriend who may be in trouble with the Initiative, and now we've got a witch looking for _her _boyfriend in the same situation…_

She stood up from her seat and walked over to stare at the group, crossing her arms to assume a more authoritive stance.

"Firstly, any chance you could tell us a bit more about yourselves?" she asked, looking 'Phoebe' in the eyes. "Not that I don't trust you; I'd just prefer to know a bit more about you before I form any opinions about you."

"Right," Phoebe said, looking back at Buffy. "Well, as I said, my sisters and I are witches. Specifically, we're the Charmed Ones."

There was a sudden smashing noise. Looking around, Buffy, along with the other Scoobies, were surprised to see Giles standing in the kitchen area of his apartment, looking at the three women with a sudden expression of awe on his face, apparently not registering the hot tea that was suddenly pooling around his shoes from the shattered cup he must have dropped.

"The… the _Charmed Ones_?" Giles asked, looking at Piper for confirmation. "But… but I thought you were only…"

"Legends?" Paige asked, smiling at him. "Yeah, we get that a lot from our non-hostile magical associates, but there you go."

"Um, could we have this with subtitles for those of us who _haven't _spent decades researching the occult?" Xander asked, raising his hand.

"Oh… right," Giles said, looking at Xander. "The Charmed Ones are, essentially, the subject of a prophecy made by the witch Melinda Warren over three centuries ago, when she was burnt at the stake. She foretold that, in the future, three sisters would be born, each one possessing one of her three powers- telekinesis, premonitions, and freezing time- and, together, the three sisters would be the most powerful witches in all of recorded history, battling demons and all kinds of other magical evils."

* * *

He looked back at the three sisters again. "If you don't mind my asking, which of you has which power?"

"Well, I can freeze time- and also make objects explode," Piper said, smiling slightly at Giles's almost boyish enthusiasm at meeting them (The key word, of course, being _almost_), "Phoebe has visions and can fly, and Paige… well, she _technically_ has telekinesis, but her unusual parentage makes it work a bit differently from the norm."

"Wait a minute; what do you mean, 'unusual parentage'?" Doyle asked, looking between Paige and Piper inquiringly. He hoped his enthusiasm didn't show through too much; he'd practically _never_ met human/… something hybrids since discovering his demon side, and was always eager to learn more about any he might meet.

"My father was our mom's Whitelighter- kind of a guardian angel for witches," Paige explained, looking over at Doyle with a smile on her face. "Relationships between them were forbidden at the time, but they still had me."

Then her smile fell. "Of course, I had to grow up away from everyone else, but hey; I'm not bitter or anything."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Doyle said, nodding understandingly at Paige. "I never really knew my family either; me dad left me before I was even born." He sighed. "Mum never even _told _me why he did it until I hit twenty-one…"

"What?" Paige asked, looking over at Doyle curiously. "Why'd she leave it so long?"

Doyle seemed about to reply, but then he just sighed.

"Trust me, lass; you _don't _want to know…" he said to her. Then he looked over at Phoebe and raised a curious eyebrow. "So, what's your boyfriend doing in the Initiative?"

"Well, he's a demon-" Phoebe began.

"A WHAT!" Cordelia said, looking at Phoebe in shock. "I thought you lot _killed_ demons!"

"And, as we understand it, you're working with a vampire?" Phoebe replied, looking over at Cordelia critically.

"Well… yeah… but Angel has a soul!" Cordelia protested, looking at Phoebe with a defensive posture.

"Well, _so does Cole_!" Phoebe yelled back.

* * *

Buffy blinked in surprise.

Well, _that _had been unexpected.

"Um… I'll take it that _isn't _the norm for demons as well?" she asked Giles, looking over at her Watcher curiously.

"No, not really," Giles said, nodding at his Slayer. "In most cases, souls are strictly a human-only thing; demons are normally just… well, demons."

"OK…" Buffy said, before looking over at Phoebe curiously. "So, if souls aren't normal for demons, how does… Cole, right?… have one?"

"Oh, well, his father was a human but his mother was a demon," Phoebe said in an off-hand manner. "It left him a human soul, and, well…"

She smiled slightly. "Not meaning to sound self-centred or anything, but his love for me managed to wake up his soul and make him defy his demon side."

"Oh," Buffy said, nodding in understanding. "So…"

"GAGH!" Phoebe and Doyle suddenly yelled, both of them clutching their heads.

"What the…?" Piper asked, looking at Doyle in surprise before glancing up at Cordelia. "He has visions?"

Cordelia nodded, just as Doyle and Phoebe looked up at each other, the pain having passed.

Phoebe spoke first. "Um… does Angel normally dress in an outfit that would make Batman look like a bright light?"

Doyle nodded. "Does Cole have red skin in his demon form?"

Phoebe nodded as well, and the two of them turned to look at their confused friends.

"We've got a problem," the two of them said.

"What?" Buffy and Piper asked, looking curiously at their new friends (and sister, in Piper's case).

"Well, it looks like Angel and Cole don't know they're meant to be on the some side, and somebody down there felt like having a bit of a contest," Phoebe said, looking nervously around at the others.

"What?" Xander said, looking at Phoebe in confusion. "What do you mean, a contest?"

"Oh, fer crying out loud, Alex," Doyle said, looking over at the teenager. "Angel and Cole are flipping _fighting _with each other!"


	7. Angelus versus Belthazor

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**Girl version of Chandler:** Well, this chapter focuses more on Angel and Cole, but Spike, if all goes well, will have a larger role in the next one, I promise you that.

**Aussiehottiemjm: **Yeah, I know, but it all adds up, doesn't it; Piper and Buffy are the 'field leaders' of the groups, Doyle and Phoebe both have visions, and so on and so forth.

**Gregdoreza: **Oh, they'll be a few demonic problems, yes, but it won't be _quite _what you're expecting; did nobody remember that there _wasn't _a 'Professor Delgado' in the Initiative we saw in the TV show…?

**Mysticallove:** You asked, and I have answered

**Jedi-Princess:** Well, I can't say which of those two options it's going to be, but trust me, things _are _going to be interesting…

**JitterBug: **Sorry it took so long; things keep coming up

**wackycavegirl:** I do what I can, my dear; things just keep coming up

What Makes a Monster?

As soon as Angel saw the red demon that was his opponent, he was ready for action. He didn't know why he was fighting this guy, he didn't know what their captors thought they could learn from it, he wasn't even sure _how _he had the bad luck to end up in a cell with one of history's most dangerous demons, a demon whose name was known even by _normal _humans…

All he knew was that, if he could help it, Belthazor would never kill another innocent again.

He charged forward, tensing himself to spring aside at a moment's notice, and, before Belthazor could react, he'd lashed out with a powerful blow that sent the demon assassin flying back into the wall with a sickening crunch.

* * *

Belthazor could only wince as he struck the wall and felt something jolt in his back, although it didn't appear to have done any truly _serious _damage to him.

He really wasn't looking forward to this fight; he may have been one of the best assassins the Source ever had, but in a straight fight with this kind of vampire, his above-average strength would never suffice to hold back his opponent.

Even a rookie vampire like the kind he'd taken out in the graveyard earlier would have been able to overpower him in a fair fight…

Then Belthazor chuckled.

_Who said it _has _to be fair_? he asked himself, as he got back to his feet and looked at Angel. If this was genuinely a test, he was prepared to bet that whoever had kidnapped them both had restored his ability to use energy balls…

He raised his hand and (To his relief) launched an energy ball at Angelus, throwing the vampire back with a smoking hole in the front of his shirt; evidently, their captors wanted this battle to be everything it could be.

* * *

As soon as his chest had stopped smarting from the force of the blow, Angel was back on his feet, diving to the ground in a desperate bid to avoid another energy ball from Belthazor. As Belthazor launched ever more energy balls at him, he continued to duck and weave away from them at the last minute, using his superior agility to always remain one step ahead of his opponent's magical weapons while, at the same time, he gradually advanced towards the demon, just waiting for the chance to get within striking distance of his adversary.

Then, just as he was within a couple of metres of the red-skinned demon, Belthazor stopped launching energy balls at him and dived towards him, striking him in the face with a powerful punch, throwing Angel back mainly due to him being caught off-guard by the blow rather than its physical force.

As Angel hit the ground, he noticed a red trickle out of the corner of his left eye; the force of the blow must have cut his forehead, or maybe he'd hit something as he landed and hadn't noticed over his surprise at being punched.

* * *

"You ready to give up yet, Angelus?" Belthazor asked the vampire, smiling slightly as Angelus rose back to his feet, blood trickling down from a cut over his eye as he looked back at Belthazor.

Angelus growled back at Belthazor, his eyes flashing with a golden gleam that made him look even more demonic than originally.

"I'll quit when you're dead, Belthazor," he said, growling. "And trust me… after everything you've done, I'll be looking forward to it."

Belthazor smiled slightly as he raised his hand and pulled up another energy ball.

"Oh, trust me, I know _exactly _how you feel," he said, already wondering if he'd really got that many people angry when he defected to the side of Good; he'd known the Source and other demons of his ilk hadn't liked it, obviously, but _vampires_?

He'd made more enemies than he'd thought…

Then he narrowed his eyes, as Phoebe's face flashed across his mind.

But it's worth it, he thought to himself; he may not agree with Cole on everything, but their love of Phoebe was one thing they were both certain about; they wouldn't give it up for anything. 

He launched the energy ball at Angelus, who just narrowly managed to dodge it by diving off to one side, and the battle was on again.

* * *

"Interesting," Professor Walsh said, as she watched the vampire/demon showdown on a screen in front of her, linked up to one of the few cameras they had in the training room; she'd been watching the fight since it started, and was currently enjoying every minute of it.

"What is?" Spiner asked, looking over at her superior curiously; she and Professor Delgado were the only other two members of the Initiative watching the fight at present, since they were the only ones who actually knew that there was anything odd about the two combatants in the first place.

"The fact that their fighting styles are so different, I'd guess," Delgado said, looking at Walsh for confirmation and continuing when she nodded. "After all, they were somehow both in a position to get this… boost, for lack of a better term… and yet, in combat, they both depend on different abilities to tackle their opponents. So, if they're so different…"

He trailed off, looking at Spiner inquiringly. Spiner had never been good at answering questions under pressure, but she had a go anyway.

"Um… how did they get that 'boost' out of every other major demon and vampire out there, if they appear to have so little in common?" she asked.

"Correct," Walsh said, as she turned back to study the screen. "It's intriguing, really; maybe these abominations have more imagination then we thought, if they're prepared to diversify a bit…"

* * *

As Angel dived away from another energy ball that came within a hair's breadth of burning his coat, he looked up at Belthazor with a smile on his face.

"You're getting better, Belthy," he said mockingly. "Another hour or so and you'll have started to singe me a bit."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly getting in close yourself, are you, Angelus?" Belthazor pointed out. "I mean, we've been doing this for a while now, and so far I'm the only one of us who's actually managed to draw blood; you haven't even gotten in _close _after that first punch!"

"Oh really?" Angel asked, smiling slightly at the demon's ignorance. "Care to place a bet on that?"

Then he dived towards Belthazor, grabbing the demon by the shoulders and pinning him to the ground as his nails dug deeply into Belthazor's arm. Despite being dead, his hair and nails still needed to be cut on occasion (He'd always been a bit puzzled by that; how could anything on him be _growing _if he was technically dead), and he'd not had the chance to do his nails recently, so they were long enough to get a decent grip on a bit of flesh on Belthazor's lower forearm, draw blood from where they met even his demonic skin…

And tear off a hunk of flesh.

"AARRGGHH!" Belthazor roared, and Angel instantly found himself with an energy ball in his chest, throwing him back towards a nearby wall, the chunk of Belthazor's flesh still clutched in his hand...

Then he struck something near the ceiling that shattered, and then he found himself lying on the floor.

Leaping to his feet, he glanced upwards and saw that he'd apparently destroyed a camera that must have been monitoring the battle between him and Belthazor; he'd been too distracted earlier to notice it.

He turned to face Belthazor, raised a hand to discard the piece of flesh still in his right hand…

And he stared at it.

The blood was red?

But Belthazor's kind of demon was supposed to have _black _blood, if they had blood at all…

He looked back up at his opponent who had only just raised an energy ball to hurl at him, and decided to take advantage of the momentary pause in the fight.

"Is there a reason your blood's red?"


	8. The Souls Shine Through

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**Teranika Meneldil:** That's a relief; I was worried it might be a bit short to attract interest

**Mysticallove:** Good to hear others like my point about the blood; I was worried it wouldn't work

**Aussiehottiemjm: **No, I never saw the 'Nip/Tuck' premiere; the show as a whole never really sounded like my kind of thing

**JitterBug:** Glad you like the plot so far; I just hope the rest of it continues to impress you

**Jedi-Princess:** Trust me, Walsh may be evil, but there's someone even _worse _than her inside the Initiative…

**kiara86: **You wanted more, and here it is

**Tara Summers:** Yes, he still has a soul; Cole just never heard he got one in the first place and thinks he's still Angelus

What Makes a Monster?

Belthazor blinked in surprise at that. 

Angelus didn't _know_?

_That _was unexpected…

He sighed, and looked back at the vampire.

"If you must know, I'm half-human; my father was a mortal," he explained, already preparing another energy ball in case Angelus was trying something. "It gives me a human soul, and certain human traits in both forms, but I assure you, my power isn't any weaker than other demons for all that."

He glared at Angelus, who was looking at him with an expression that could only be surprise on his face.

* * *

Angel could only stare at Belthazor for a few moments, unable to believe what he'd just heard.

_Belthazor_ had a soul? Belthazor, one of the deadliest demon assassins of all time, a demon who was said in some circles to torment his father's spirit on a regular basis- Angel had never heard exactly what the father had done to deserve that treatment by his son- had a _soul_?

"Does it actually affect you?" he asked the demon, shifting his balance as he prepared to leap towards his foe if he got the wrong answer to this question- the wrong answer, in this case, being any comment towards the effect that he found the soul was merely a handicap in his line of 'work'.

Belthazor stared at Angel incredulously for a moment or two, and then spoke.

"You don't really keep up-to-date with the news from my side of the supernatural world, do you?" he asked.

Angel shrugged. "The occasional titbit, but you know how it is; both our sides generally ignore the other," he replied. "Why?"

"Because, if you did, you'd know that I recently betrayed my superiors because of my soul," Belthazor replied.

Then he looked at Angel quizzically. "If you didn't know that, why were you fighting me? Career thing?"

* * *

Angelus shook his head as he looked back at Belthazor.

"Far from it, Belthazor," he replied, finally dropping the combat stance he'd been in for the duration of their talk and walking towards the demon. "Didn't you notice that I haven't really been as active in the last century as I was in the one before it?"

Belthazor nodded in acknowledgement. It was true; anything he'd heard about Angelus in his lifetime among the Underworld had all been old information. He'd never heard of anything that Angelus had done relatively _recently_, although there had been rumours that he'd been roped into helping the Allies pick up a lost submarine during the Second World War…

Belthazor had always wondered about that, to be honest; why would Angelus, the most ruthless vampire of all, ever actually _help _anyone?

"Well," he said, looking back at the vampire, "I _did _wonder about that, to be honest, but I guess we all assumed that you'd just decided to operate in a manner that was attracting less attention than before."

Angelus shook his head. "Far from it, Belthazor," he said, as he stood in front of the demon, beside an empty rack that looked like it might have been used for guns before somebody emptied it. "I had a little run-in with a clan of gypsies back in 1898, when I killed the favoured daughter of a clan. They wanted me to suffer, so…"

He sighed, and looked Belthazor in the eyes. "They gave me back my soul."

Belthazor's eyes widened in surprise. He may not know much about vampires, but he knew enough to know that they always consisted of a demon inhabiting a human corpse, each demon lacking even the slightest trace of a conscience and only possessing a _similar_ personality to their body's original inhabitant, rather than the actual person.

To have the soul actually _returned _to the body…

"I guess they left you your memories of the demon's crimes?" he asked the vampire, as he lowered his arm and extinguished the energy ball he'd held there. "That's rough; I'm sorry."

"Thanks," 'Angelus' said, looking at Belthazor with a slight smile on his face. "But call me Angel."

He held out his hand, and Belthazor shook it.

And there, after a short and violent battle by way of an introduction, a legend was born.

* * *

"Wait a minute; they're _fighting_!" Buffy asked, looking at Doyle in horror. "Who's winning?"

"It looked like a draw, but there's no guarantee that's how things'll stay," Doyle replied, as he glanced over at Phoebe. "Is Cole stronger than humans in demon form?"

"Not by much," Phoebe replied, shaking her head. "I'll guess Angel is?"

"Quite noticeably so," Giles said, nodding at Phoebe. "We have to get down there as soon as possible; if this group learns about Angel and Cole having souls, there's no way of knowing _what _they'll do…"

The ex-Watcher looked over at Leo inquiringly. "You said you're a Whitelighter; doesn't that mean you can… what's the term again… orb to certain locations whenever you want?"

* * *

Leo nodded. "Yeah, that's right," he said, then holding up one hand as Giles began to speak again. "But if you're asking me to orb to Angel and Cole and rescue them, it won't work; I've already tried to sense Cole, and I can't."

"Wait a minute; you can sense Cole?" Piper asked, looking at her husband in confusion. "I thought you could only sense your charges?"

"Well, after he came over to our side, the Elders extended my 'remit' to cover him as well as you three," Leo explained. "He's not _exactly _my charge, but I can still sense where he is mostly…"

He frowned. "Which is why I'm so concerned about the fact that I can't place him right now; all I know for sure is that he's in this town, and that's as far as it goes."

"Um… could something be… I dunno, blocking his 'signal' to you?" Xander asked, raising an inquiring hand. "Or whatever the hell the expression is…"

"Well, there _are _circumstances where I can't detect where my charges are, but I'd rather not think about that," Leo said, looking over at Xander. "You see, only powerful, evil magic could stop me detecting their location, and-"

* * *

"Wait wait wait; _magic_?" Buffy said, interrupting the ex-army medic as she looked at him. "You sure there's not something else that could do it? Cause we _know _there's some freaky rouge branch of the military behind this, and magic does _not _come under the heading of tricks they know about!"

"As far as we know," Anya pointed out, from where she was sitting. "I mean, when you get down to it, what do we really _know_ about these guys, beyond the fact that they like capturing demons, think anything demon is evil, and stuck that bizarre chip in Spike's head to stop him attacking humans?"

Paige looked over at Anya curiously.

"Spike?" she asked. "Who's that?"

"Bloody hell, you sods _finally _remembered me?" a voice called out from a nearby wardrobe. "I thought you'd all but forgotten I'd ever been bleeding _born_!"

Buffy and Willow looked at each other and sighed.

"Spike," Buffy said, looking over at the Halliwells and Leo by way of explanation. "He's a vampire, but he's also the only link we've got to this facility so far; he was captured by them, but he somehow managed to get out and, well, we've been keeping him around until he tells us more about it."

"He's not talking yet?" Paige asked.

"Nope," Willow said, shaking her head. "You guys have anything that could help us?"

"Well, we _do _have a truth spell, but I'm not sure if it works on vampires; we've only ever used it on humans," Piper said, jerking her thumb at the cupboard where Spike's voice had come from. "Any other ideas as to how we could find this place?"

* * *

Doyle sighed. He'd hoped it wouldn't come to this so soon- particularly in front of Cordelia- but all other options had been exhausted.

It was this, or let Angel die, and Doyle wasn't prepared to do that.

"Um… I have an idea," he said, raising one hand like he was a child in school.

"What?" Phoebe asked, looking over at Doyle eagerly, the others turning in his direction as well.

"Well… we both have visions, right?" Doyle said, looking at Phoebe. "Couldn't you three, like, cast a spell or something to 'link' you 'nd me so you can see what I see? Then I could let meself get captured by these guys, somehow trick 'em into taking me to where they're keeping Angel and Cole, and then… well, break out?"

"Um… question?" Paige put in, looking at Doyle. "You're human, Doyle; why should these guys target you?"

Doyle swallowed.

This was it.

"Well, y'see, Paige, I'm kinda like you and Cole in that regard," he said, as he stood up. "My mother was a hundred per cent human, but me da…"

He closed his eyes, focused, and opened his eyes once he'd felt he familiar spines pop up out of his face, to the gasps of surprise from the others in the room.

Doyle shrugged casually.

"As you can see, me dad wasn't."

* * *

Eventually, Cordelia broke the silence by getting up, walking over to Doyle, and slapping him.

"Hey!" Doyle said, clutching his sore cheek (The quills had started retracting as soon as Cordelia's hand began to move towards them in order to avoid injuring her hand). "What was that for?"

"DUH!" Cordelia said, yelling at him. "You're a _demon_! You're meant to _tell _people you're a demon! I thought we agreed that secrets were bad!"

"I was _going_ to tell you!" Doyle protested. "I just figured you'd tell me to get lost!"

"Oh please, what am I, superficial?" Cordelia asked. "So you're half demon! That's _so_ far down the list, way under 'short' and 'poor'!"

Having vented her immediate frustration, she looked at Doyle again. "Is there anything else I should know about you?"

"The half demon thing?" Doyle said, looking at her. "Pretty much my big secret."

Cordelia smiled. "Good," she said, nodding at him. "That's out. It's done. Now, could you just ask me to dinner already for when this is over and our brooding boss is restored to us?"

* * *

Doyle was about to say something to that, but then Xander coughed politely.

"Um, I'm all in favour of office romance, but could we focus on more immediate concerns here?" he asked, looking around at the rest of the group. "I mean, we _do _still have a base to infiltrate here, you know."

"Oh… yeah, right," Buffy said, looking over at the Halliwells. "You three see what you can do about a spell that can do what Doyle suggested; the rest of us'll see if we can do anything about preparing for an attack on that facility."

"Wait a minute; an _attack_?" Xander asked, looking over at Buffy in surprise. "Don't get me wrong here, I'm as opposed to those guys just experimenting on demons as the next guy, but wouldn't it make more sense to just blow the place up?"

"As well as whatever's on top of it?" Phoebe put in, looking over at the young man critically. "I couldn't get much from my vision, but the facility is _definitely _underground; I think there's no way we could risk a cave-in."

"Besides, if we blow the place up, they might just set shop in another location," Willow put in. "If we're going to stop them, we need to do it in a manner that actually delivers a message to whoever set this up; show them that they can't treat _anything _like that."

"Agreed," Piper and Buffy said simultaneously.

The two groups smiled slightly at that little incident; interesting to see how rapidly their leaders were starting to think on the same wavelength.

Right then, as each member of that strange team looked around at the others, whether old friends or new, they all knew one thing.

United, nothing could stop them from destroying the Initiative.


	9. The Fall Begins

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Oh, and the spell to allow Doyle and Phoebe to see through each other's eyes at least partly came from 'The Way Things Should Be' by Lady Callista, which can be found on the 'Land of Denial' Buffy/Angel fanfic archive. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**Girl version of Chandler:** He'll get better in the end, but I'm sorry to saw there won't be a Spike/Paige pairing; I just don't see them together

**inumiko7:** Glad to hear I've given you something enjoyable for your earlier delves into this kind of fanfic

**Jedi-Princess:** Oh, they're going to work together very well; in fact, if all goes well, they'll practically be _brothers _at the end of this tale…

**Gregdoreza:** 'Painful' is _not _going to be the word, believe me…

**Majin Gojira:** I see… Well, I'll bear that comment about the page breaks in mind, but I can't make any promises (Oh, and regarding the mixed mythology thing, I'm trying as well as I can to provide decent explanations for the contrasting pasts of the two shows, I assure you)

**Maricole:** Trust me, when these guys work together, you'd need to be a flippin' GOD to stop them… And, as Glory would testify, sometimes even that isn't enough

**pinkyblue-ice:** Here it is

**wackycavegirl:** In a tick; we JUST need to get Doyle in the base first…

**Stantonluver:** Thank you for being my most _interesting _reviewer

**Ashirum: **Well, glad to hear I introduced you to a new kind of fanfic; hope I continue to live up to your expectations

What Makes a Monster?

Angel was barely able to choke back a laugh at what he'd just heard.

The coincidences just seemed to be _piling _up today…

"You fell in love with a _witch_?" he asked Belthazor- no, Cole, he reminded himself; Belthazor had asked Angel to call him Cole after they'd shaken hands- incredulously. "_You_!"

"So?" Cole asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's hardly a crime, is it?"

"No, it's not _that_," Angel said, waving a hand dismissively. "I mean, it's unexpected, yeah, but it's more the sheer _coincidence _factor of it…"

"Why's it a coincidence?" Cole asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's just that… well, I used to date the current Vampire Slayer," Angel said, shrugging casually.

Cole's jaw dropped. "The _Slayer_!" he said, staring at Angel incredulously. "The _Vampire _Slayer? 'Into every generation there is a Chosen One', yadda yadda yadda?"

"No, the _other _mythical Slayer," Angel said, rolling his eyes mockingly.

The two chuckled slightly at that. Having realised that they couldn't get out of their prison, since their captors would never have stuck them anywhere that could be weak enough to let them get loose, the two ex-murderers had decided to spend some time getting to know each other, and, somehow, the conversation had gone over to the respective women in their lives.

Then Cole's grin faded, and he looked back at Angel.

"You _used _to date the Slayer?" he asked, looking at his new friend curiously. "What happened?"

_Please don't let it be that she couldn't cope with your evil past and dumped you_… he thought to himself; if it could happen to Angel, it could probably happen to him…

"It was a clause in the curse that gave me my soul," Angel replied, sighing slightly before continuing. "The demon within me was meant to be subjected to constant torment, with the soul keeping it down. If I ever experienced true happiness, even for a moment, the curse would be broken, and I'd be back to the way I was before."

"Ah," Cole said, nodding sympathetically at Angel. "And would I be right in guessing that you triggered the clause?"

"Yeah," Angel said, nodding slightly sadly. "One of her friends managed to cast a spell to put my soul back, but… but we just couldn't go back to the way things had been before. Knowing we could never go further, but always _wanting _to…"

He looked up at Cole, a slightly envious expression in his eyes. "At least you never had that to worry about; you were _born _with your soul, and you've never had your demon side take it away."

Cole shook his head. "Trust me, Angel; it's not as easy as you'd think," he said. "I'm barely in control at the moment; it takes a real effort to force Belthazor to the background when I'm in this form. If it wasn't for this bloody chip shutting down my shifting abilities, I'd-"

Angel held up a hand. "Wait a minute; the chip's _stopping _you from returning to human form?"

"Yeah, it is; so what?" Cole said, shrugging as he looked back at Angel. "I mean, they know about my shimmering ability; I just figured the lack of shifting was a side-effect. After all the principles are _essentially _the same; both involve my molecules getting reorganized."

"In the _exact_ same way?" Angel said, looking at Cole quizzically. "I don't pretend to be an expert on magic, but surely those two 'tricks' or yours can't be _exactly _the same…"

He looked Cole directly in the eyes as he spoke, the better to emphasise his next point. "There's something going on here that we don't know about."

"_Indeed_," a voice said from above them. "_But then again, you demons are so idiotic that I'm surprised _everything _about this facility doesn't go over your heads_."

Cole and Angel glanced up instantly, their eyes falling on some kind of speaker that was located in the centre of the roof; it seemed to be fairly haphazardly placed, suggesting that it was a relatively recent addition to the room.

Angel and Cole glanced at each other inquiringly, and then Angel stood up to address the speaker better.

"Who are you?" he said to the speaker. "And how much did you hear?"

"_Enough to know that you're both smarter than we thought, and that you're not as dangerous_," the voice said; the two of them now noticed that it was a woman speaking, although she was apparently an older woman, maybe in her fifties. "_I mean, thinking that you could actually get involved with a _witch _and a _Slayer_? Belthazor, witches don't _exist_; Angelus, there is no way a Slayer would _ever _get involved with something like _you_. You're all freaks, abominations of nature. No one wants you, no one ever will_."

Angel chuckled. "Shows you what _you _know," he said, looking up at the speaker. "You really need to learn not to see everything in terms of black and white; there's such a shade as grey, you know?"

"Exactly," Cole said, smiling over at Angel before looking back up at the speaker with a glare in his eye. "Did it ever occur to you that even demons can change, or are you so caught up in your bigotry that you can't see beyond physical appearances?"

The voice chuckled. "_Don't presume to compare our treatment of you to human treatment of the Negro, Belthazor_," she said. "_You're not human; you're no better than animals_."

Then the tone changed, going from mocking to inquisitive. "_But on that topic, would you mind telling us exactly _what _you have from us_?"

"What?" Angel said, looking at Cole in confusion. "What do you mean, what we have from you; we never even knew you existed until you jumped us!"

"_I meant from _humanity_, Angelus_," the voice said. "_We studied blood samples from the two of you, and your DNA shares a feature with some humans that no other vampire or demon that we have studied has ever possessed. What we wanted to know was if you knew each other and had received whatever enhancement you received in some vast plot to upgrade the demon race, or if this was a mere fluke of nature for some reason_."

"Wait a minute…" Cole said, looking over at Angel, suspicion dawning in his eyes. "Something in our DNA, that _no other _demon or vampire has? You think…?"

"Anything's possible," Angel said, as he turned back to look at the speaker. "You know, you could have saved a lot of trouble by asking us that question. I can assure you that we _do _have something no other demon has, but we got it independently, and it doesn't make us superior to other demons; just… different, I guess."

"_Really_?" the woman said, in a tone that suggested she wouldn't have believed what Angel and Cole would say next even if they told her the sky was blue. "_And what would that be_?"

"Souls," Cole said, shrugging casually.

There was a pause for a moment or two, and then the woman laughed. "_No, seriously; what does the extra DNA give you_?" she asked again, sounding as though she was humouring a maniac.

Angel rolled his eyes as he looked over at Cole. "Why is it nobody _ever _believes that story?" he asked, as though it a common complaint. "Honestly, God may have fallen out of favour in the modern day, but surely people'd twig on the fact that there must be _some _evidence as to why so many used to believe in the soul?"

"Got me, Angel, m'man," Cole said, shrugging in a dismissive manner.

"_Just stop your lies, please; this isn't helping your situation_," the woman said, sounding more aggravated than she had earlier. "_Not only do souls not exist, but even if they _did_, you couldn't have them; you're all demons, freaks of nature. Even my basic knowledge of religion tells me that only _humans _have souls_-"

"And what do you think I used to be?" Angel asked, rolling his eyes in frustration. "Think I was _grown _somewhere? I was _born _a human, you know."

"And do you honestly think _every _demon just wants to kill humans?" Cole asked, looking up at the speaker as well. "You may not be right in my case, but you've made a valid point; having aspects of humanity _can _help demons predict how humans might react to certain situations."

"Now then; could you just let us out of here, or do we have to get nasty?" Angel asked the speaker, deciding they'd been teasing their unknown antagonist for long enough. "And trust me; you _don't _want to see us getting nasty."

"_On the contrary, _Angelus," the voice said. "_I think it's time we sent you two to your new cell_."

"Oh, and you think we'll just go quietly?" Cole put in. "You're dumber than I thought!"

The voice chuckled. "_You seem to be forgetting, Belthazor, we have some very… lucrative means of keeping you under control_…"

Suddenly, blinding pain tore through Angel and Cole's skulls. Instantly, their hands clasped their foreheads, as though trying to force the pain out, but it was no good…

* * *

"Once and for all, you're _sure _this spell's only temporary, right?" Doyle asked, as he stood nervously in the middle of the circle that Paige, Piper and Willow had formed around him and Phoebe. Since Phoebe was involved in the spell as well as Doyle, Willow had volunteered to act as a stand-in for her in the Power of Three to cast this spell.

"Um… yeah, it should be," Phoebe said, looking back at Doyle with a smile to reassure him. "Trust me; we can void it any time we want. We'll just maintain it long enough to track where you go, and then we'll take things from there."

"Can we get on with this?" Anya asked, from where she was slouched against Xander. "I'm getting horny; Xander and I haven't had sex for eight hours."

"Um… OK…" Piper said, glancing over at Buffy. "Is she always like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Buffy said, shrugging dismissively. "Trust me; you get used to it. Anyway, you ready."

"Oh yeah," Piper said, nodding at Buffy before glancing over at Paige and Willow. "Ready?"

The other two witches nodded, and Piper glanced and Phoebe and Doyle. "You two?"

They both nodded, maintaining eye contact at the same time; for this to work, the two Seers had to be exactly eye-to-eye.

"Right then," Piper said, as she stood back and, holding out her arms, joined hands with Paige and Willow as they began to speak.

"_In this night and in the hour,  
__I call upon an Ancient Power.  
__O Goddess Bride and Consort Bright,  
__I ask you now to bring your light.  
__Let these Seers see through other's eyes.  
__Grant me your sight, O ye most wise_."

After the first words had been spoken, a yellow energy ball formed in between Phoebe and Doyle, sending out brief sparks as the spell progressed. As it neared its conclusion, a bolt shot out from either side of the ball to connect with Phoebe and Doyle's left eyes before the spell finished and the ball vanished.

Doyle and Phoebe looked over at each blankly for a moment or two, and then Doyle spoke.

"Am I really that pale?" he asked Phoebe, looking at her inquiringly.

Phoebe shrugged. "Hey, could be worse; just be glad your demon side isn't stronger." She stretched out her arms and turned around, blinking in surprise at something only she could see. "Is that really what I look like from behind?"

"Can we take it the spell worked?" Leo asked, looking at his sister-in-law with a slight smile on his face; even in the middle of a crisis, some things couldn't change.

"Oh yeah…" Doyle said, rubbing his left eye and earning a scolding look from Phoebe.

"Can't a girl have _any _time to relax?" she said to him, before noticing the scolding expression on Buffy's face and relaxing. "Chill out, OK; I'm as concerned about this as you, remember?"

Buffy seemed about to reply to that, but, in the end, she just sighed, smiled apologetically at the witch, and glanced over at Doyle.

"It's sundown," she said to the half-Irish half-Brachen half-breed. "Ready to go out and get caught?"

Doyle swallowed. "Ready as I'll ever be," he said. Then he turned around at looked over at Cordelia. "'Delia, if I don't-"

Cordelia clapped a hand over his mouth, looking him in the eyes.

"Say anything like that, and you _definitely _won't, OK?" she told him.

Then she smiled at him, took her hand back, and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek.

"Besides, if you don't get back, how'll you ever know what the full package is like?" she asked him.

Doyle smiled briefly at her, and then turned around and walked out of the small room.

As he stepped out of the door, Buffy glanced over at Giles.

"Shouldn't some of us follow him?" she asked. "You know, just to make sure things go well?"

Giles shook his head. "We have a good plan; we can't afford to jeopardise it by devoting excess numbers to it," he said. "Doyle can manage on his own, I'm sure."

Buffy knew Giles was right; they couldn't afford to chop and change their attack strategy just because she felt like it.

Still…

There were times when the heart just contradicted the head, wasn't there?


	10. Infiltrate and Break Out

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

**ka-mia2286:** Trust me, I'm looking forward to writing the part where all that happens myself

**Maricole: **You may indeed; I'm sorry it took so long to get done myself

**CharmingStar: **Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long

**Ant Crown: **Thanks; I do what I can

**Wackycavegirl:** Pretty soon; Doyle just has to get in and break Angel and Cole out first

* * *

AN: Just to clarify, the link between Doyle and Phoebe that was triggered by the spell can be consciously controlled by the two of them, although it remains active. At present, Doyle has turned off his perception of what Phoebe is seeing, meaning that he only sees what he sees, but Phoebe can still see what Doyle sees.

* * *

What Makes a Monster?

Doyle smiled slightly as he walked down yet another of Sunnydale's numerous back streets. True, he was no further along in achieving what he'd set out to do in the first place, but, in all fairness, it wasn't like he was _eager _to get knocked out and captured by a bunch of military nutcases…

And besides, if you didn't know about the demons, this place was actually very pleasant. Nice little suburban houses, a mass of pleasant little gardens…

He could _definitely _see himself coming to live here for some peace and quiet.

At least, if he hadn't known that it had an average death rate of three people a night, of course; _that _kind of statistic was public knowledge, even if the reason for it wasn't.

He rounded another corner…

And froze.

There were three men near him. He may not have Angel's vampiric senses, but even in human form, his senses operated at a level slightly above the human norm, allowing him to hear the faint traces of the men's heartbeats, along with the faint hum of some kind of electronic weapon that hung on their belts. It sounded like they were in a nearby alleyway; they couldn't have seen him yet…

Doyle smiled.

Perfect.

Closing his eyes, he shifted into his demonic form and walked into the alleyway, his hands held up in a claming gesture as the three men turned to look at him, pointing their weapons at him.

Doyle smiled slightly at them, feeling only a slight tinge of panic as he stared at the guns. He regretted that he couldn't feel what Phoebe was feeling about this, but that was the whole point of that part of the spell; the connection had to remain limited unless absolutely necessary, otherwise something might detect it. The sisters were convinced that something in the base was deliberately suppressing Cole's powers so that he couldn't escape, and didn't want to run the risk that someone might find out about the link and find some way to stop it as well.

Doyle looked one man in the eye, and then spoke.

"I know it's a flippin' cliché line, but… take me to your leader?" he said, trying to sound casual. "I'd like to see my ol' friend Angelus."

The man stared at Doyle for a moment, and then spoke.

"You know Angelus?" he said to Doyle. "Do you know anything about his… extras?"

Doyle was briefly puzzled by that query, but then it occurred to him; this guy must be referring to Angel's soul. True, he wasn't exactly sure _how _they could have done that, but he officially worked as the assistant to a private detective, not as the assistant to a major scientist. Who was he to say what kind of effect a soul would have on the body?

"Yeah, I do," he said, looking at the man. "Actually, I think you'll find I've got 'em myself; care to have me checked over?"

The man raised his gun and pointed it at Doyle's chest.

"Walk," he said. "And don't try anything, or you'll be zapped."

As Doyle started walking, he could only hope that he hadn't just made a serious mistake…

* * *

"Well, that's something," Phoebe muttered, from where she was sitting on Giles' sofa staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"What?" Willow asked, looking over at her new friend. "We've got something?"

"Well, Doyle's _finally _found some soldiers; all he needs to do now is get to their base," Phoebe said, before she glanced over at the cupboard where they were keeping this 'Spike' and raised her voice slightly. "Which we could have done a _lot _earlier if _someone _wasn't so damn _picky_ about telling us useful stuff…"

"Let me bloody _walk_ and we'll talk; I'm losing circulation in my bloody legs here!" Spike yelled back at her.

"You're a vampire; last time I checked, you guys are technically dead!" Piper yelled over from where she was preparing a meal for the group, aided by Buffy; Xander and Anya had gone back to their apartment for a while, Willow was looking over some books for information, and Cordelia, Leo, Giles and Paige had gone to the Magic Box to pick up some potion ingredients and spell books that they might need. "Do you even _have _any circulation?"

"He doesn't," Buffy put in, from where she was searching for a decent pot in the cupboards. "They don't even have body heat; to all intents and purposes, a vampire's just a walking corpse that often has a demon in it. Angel's the only exception…"

She stopped what she was doing for a moment and sighed.

"Bad memories?" Piper asked, looking inquiringly at her new friend.

"More… annoying, really," Buffy said, as she looked back at Piper. "I mean, Angel and I had something so good… and then he just left me at graduation without even saying goodbye to me."

She groaned as she looked up at the ceiling. "Bloody curse…"

"Curse?" Piper asked, looking over at Buffy curiously. "Leo mentioned it on the way down, but was that really the _only_ reason you two broke it off?"

"Yeah…" Buffy said, as she looked over at Piper curiously. "Why?"

"Just, if that was the only problem, maybe my sisters and I could have a look at it for you?" Piper suggested.

Buffy blinked in surprise; evidently, that thought had never occurred to her.

"You… you could do that?" she asked, looking at Piper inquiringly. "I mean… make his soul permanent?"

"Probably," Piper said, nodding at the Slayer. "After all, the whole thing sounds a bit stupid to me; a curse that causes a champion for good to turn evil when he gets the chance to relax? _Somebody _needs to sort that out, right?"

"I'll drink to that," Buffy said, smiling at Piper. Then her face fell. "Or at least, I _would _drink to that, if I was old enough to do so…"

She shuddered briefly.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Had a bad beer-related experience recently," Buffy explained. "Some guy was slipping drugs into the beers that made anyone who drank them revert to a caveman-like mentality. I got over it, but still, not exactly a pleasant experience."

"I'll bet," Piper said, smiling sympathetically at the younger woman.

* * *

Walsh looked at the spine-faced demon standing in front of her, his arms held back by two of the other Initiative soldiers as he glared at her. He almost seemed to think that he was _better _than her, no matter how stupid that idea was…

"So, you claim to be acquainted with Angelus?" she asked the demon, raising an enquiring eyebrow. "If I may ask, how _do _you know each other?"

"We've worked together once or twice," the demon said, shrugging casually. "I've got some extras, he has those same benefits, we get along well."

Then his face grew even harder as he glared at Walsh. "Anyway, can I see my friend, or have you already killed him like the monsters that ye are?"

Walsh rolled her eyes; it seemed that, whatever else these three had in common, they all shared a common obsession with trying to convince Walsh that she was wrong for experimenting on these freaks of nature.

"He's still alive," she said, rolling her eyes as she glanced over at Riley, who was standing behind the new target fingering his gun. "Get a chip installed and toss him in with Hostiles 42 and 44."

"Um… 'chip'?" the demon said, looking at her in a suddenly nervous manner. "What chi- ARGH!" he screamed, as the taser gun struck him in the back and he collapsed to the ground.

* * *

"Bloody hell…" Doyle muttered, as he staggered weakly onto his feet, blinking rapidly to try and clear his vision. "Did anyone get the number of that bloody truck…"

"Doyle?" a voice said from off to one side, almost sounding worse-off than he did.

"_Angel_!" Doyle said in joy, leaping to his feet and looking over at his friend, the last traces of his earlier pain gone in an instant. "Yer alive!"

"Yeah…" the vampire said, as he staggered to his feet and looked dazedly at his friend. "But… what are _you _doing here?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry about th-" Doyle began, before his eyes fell on the red shape lying beside them both, who was only just starting to stir. "Ah, Cole Turner, I presume?"

"Ugh…" Cole muttered, as he blinked his eyes open and slowly began to stagger back onto his feet.

"What?" Angel asked, looking at Doyle in confusion. "How'd you know that?"

"His girlfriend and her sisters showed up to try and track him down, ran into us, and one thing led to another," Doyle said, smiling at his friend.

"Phoebe?" Cole said, looking at Doyle with sudden eagerness, although he still didn't seem to be firing on all thrusters. "She… she's here?"

"Oh yeah," Doyle said, smiling at the red-skinned demon. The guy may look vicious, but there was something about his manner that Doyle found appealing.

Besides, after all the stories he'd heard from Phoebe, he found he kind of sympathised with the guy…

"Actually, she cast a spell that links her left eye to mine so that we see what the other sees for the moment," Doyle explained, smiling at Cole's gleeful expression. "Figured we might need so they know if things go badly down here; they should be available if things go badly."

* * *

"So, we've got the Charmed Ones, the Slayer, two demons, _and _an extra witch batting for our team when we get out of here?" Angel asked, smiling eagerly at his friend.

"Oh yeah," Doyle said, nodding casually at the vampire.

Angel casually dusted his hands together and turned to look at the energy field between them and freedom.

"Well, let's get down to business," he said, as he turned to look back at Cole. "I have an idea, but I'm going to need your he-"

He froze. The other two didn't need to ask why; they could already hear the footsteps coming down the corridor towards their cell, although whether they were coming for them or a demon in one of the other cells was a mystery at the moment.

"So, Riley, any plans regarding the delectable Miss Summers?" one of the soldiers said, as they got closer to the cell.

Angel froze.

Buffy… 

"Well, y'know, I'm thinking I might ask her out for a coffee tomorrow night…" 'Riley' said, as they walked by the trio's cell.

Angel clenched his fists. He recognized Riley; he was the relatively average-looking man she'd been talking to with every appearance of enjoying the conversation. He nearly growled at the man, but then smiled as he came up with a better idea.

"Would that be Buffy Summers?" he asked casually.

'Riley' froze and turned to look at the vampire in the cell.

"What do you know about Buffy?" he said.

Angel shrugged. "Oh, I know that she's the Slayer… and a _really _good kisser," he said, grinning. He knew that the last comment was a bit of a low blow, but, quite frankly, he couldn't help it.

He chuckled at the shocked expression on Riley's face as he turned to look at the vampire. For the first time since he'd arrived in this base, Angel had control. He could pull Riley any way he wanted…

And _God_, he liked that.

"What!" both Riley and the other soldier said simultaneously.

"He said she's the Slayer, you idiot," Cole put in, chuckling as he realised what Angel was planning. "We knew you were stupid, but we didn't think you were deaf, too."

"Um, Cole, I think he was asking about the _other_ thing," Angel said, before turning back to look at Riley. "Yeah, good kisser, great in bed."

Riley looked like he was going to faint, but, to his 'credit', he maintained his composure.

"Buffy would NEVER do that with you," he said flatly, as he stared at the vampire.

"Wanna bet?" Angel said, grinning evilly at the young man.

Riley stepped forward, reaching out to the button that opened the field…

And as soon as the field separating the two groups had gone down, Angel had grabbed Riley's gun and, despite the brief, blinding agony in his skull that the action caused, kicked Riley back as he tossed the gun over to Cole.

Cole turned the weapon back on the other soldiers, and fired it rapidly three times, all three of them instantly collapsing to the ground from the sheer force of the electric power that spread through their bodies.

Angel and Cole glanced over at Doyle with smiles on their faces.

"Looks like these chips in our heads only work if we actually _hit _the other guys," Cole said, grinning as he stared at the gun in his hand. "Give us a few of these to fight with, and it'll be all plain sailing."

"Oh yeah…" Angel said, grinning as he glanced down at the unconscious bodies before him before looking back at his allies. "Well, now that we've sorted that out, shall we escape? We'd better take the guns to fight with until we can get these chips out of our heads; I take it they installed one in you as well?" he asked Doyle.

Doyle nodded. "Think so, at least; they were definitely talking about it when I was knocked out," he said.

Angel kicked the guns over to Cole and Doyle, and then smiled slightly as his eyes fell on the bodies of Riley and the other soldiers.

"Actually, forget the idea of fighting our way out," he said, as he looked thoughtfully from the bodies to those of his friends, "I may just have another idea…"


	11. Face to Face with Evil

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

"Damnit…" Doyle muttered, as he fingered the collar of his military-issue suit as they walked through the corridors. He'd managed to shift back into his human form- evidently, whoever was overseeing this operation either didn't know that Doyle could do that or just hadn't been able to figure out a way to stop him changing- but he still felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb in this get-up.

_Still_, Doyle mused as he glanced over at Cole/Belthazor, who was walking around with the collar turned up around his face and a military cap jammed down on his head to such an extent that only his eyes could be seen, _at least I'm not as obvious as _some_ people…_

They still weren't quite sure how they were going to explain Cole's appearance if anyone asked; at the moment, Doyle's only plan was to try and hit the bastard and then run like hell.

Looking over at Angel, he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous at his friend. Angel may not be quite as used to the ways of the modern world as some of them- even after nearly three months, Doyle had yet to recall a _single _occasion where his friend had been able to properly use his mobile phone- but he somehow managed to carry off the soldier's outfit as though he'd been born in it.

Angel had dismissed it by saying that he'd just grown used to wearing various outfits in his time as Angelus. Doyle had been a little annoyed at how casual Angel was about this, but then had realised that this was just Angel's way of coping with things. He may have been older than either of them by at least a century, but he was still scared of being caught.

Besides, Doyle had no real reason to be _jealous _of the ease with which Angel was handling this situation; after living through at least _fourteen_ wars, Doyle supposed that Angelus must have had to pose as a soldier at least once to get away after one of his killing sprees…

Doyle broke off his train of thought to nod politely at a soldier who was walking past him, to which the man just nodded back briefly in response before continuing to walk.

Doyle chuckled; so, far Cole's theory about the soldiers was proving accurate. After they'd changed into their outfits, Doyle had worried about getting caught by someone who knew the staff well enough to identify the fact that _none _of them had been seen before, but Cole had pointed out that, given the group's low opinion of demons, they'd probably never assume that even _one _of them could get into the base without their knowledge, never mind _three _of them…

"Any ideas where the entrance is, Doyle?" Angel asked, glancing over at the half-breed, breaking his train of thought.

"Eh?" Doyle said, looking over at the vampire in confusion. "Why're you asking me?"

"Well, you _were _the only one of us who was conscious when you came in," Cole pointed out, his voice slightly muffled by the clothing around his head. "Surely you can recognise _something_?"

"Look, Cole, just because I was awake when I came in doesn't mean I was awake when I stuck in the cell, you know!" Doyle hissed back at his new friend, Angel nervously scanning their surroundings to make sure nobody overheard their conversation. "I've got no idea _where _we are in relation to the door, and we can't exactly ask anyone for directions, you know!"

* * *

"Um… guys?" Angel said, looking back at the two demons. "Maybe this is what we need?"

He indicated what seemed to be a floor plan of the base on the wall, and Cole and Doyle stared at it for a few moments before Doyle coughed sheepishly.

"Oh… yeah, right," he said, looking at Angel with a grin that was both hopeful yet sheepish. "Um… could we forget that I missed that?"

Angel shrugged. "We're all only human, Doyle," he said, patting his friend reassuringly on the shoulder.

Neither of the others contradicted him as they studied the map. They knew he was right; regardless of whether or not they actually _were _human, they had more humanity in their little fingers than anyone in this facility had in their whole bodies. At least when _they _fought demons, they treated them with respect; these guys just treated them as worse than animals…

"OK," Cole said, studying the map as he tapped the 'You Are Here' sign with one finger while his eyes roamed over the floor plan. "We're on the third sub-level, the main entrance seems to be located from the main 'hall'…"

"And I got in through this side entrance here," Doyle said, indicating a smaller exit point on sub-level one, just a couple of flights of stairs and (Based on the scale) a couple of hundred metres down from their current location.

He glanced over at the others. "Don't know about you, but I'd say that's our best bet; who knows _what's_ above this place?"

Cole nodded. "True. If I've learned anything from my time with the Halliwells, it's that human secret organisations _always _like to leave their base entrances in public locations; less suspicious."

"OK, so we'll check out this entrance," Angel said, looking over the map again…

And then stopping and slapped his finger down on one room.

"What?" Cole said, looking at Angel curiously. "You found something."

"I think so," Angel said, tapping the room as he looked over at the others. "Check this out."

Doyle and Cole looked at the room Angel was indicating, and then looked over at the vampire in confusion.

"Uh… the Demon Surgery?" Doyle said, confused. "What's so interesting about that?"

"Well, you don't think they just _beamed _these chips into our heads, do you?" Angel said, tapping his skull. "This must be where they put the chips in the demons' heads. And if that's the case…"

"Angel," Cole said, glaring over at the vampire, "none of us are brain surgeons, in case you'd forgotten. How are we meant to get the chips out without rendering us incapable of motion ever again?"

"Well, we might as well _check_ the surgery, right?" Doyle said, looking over at Cole. "Who knows; maybe we'll find something that turns these things off for a bit and you can… shine us out?"

"The term is 'shimmer'," Cole corrected. Then he shrugged. "But your point is well-made; if nothing else, I'd rather we didn't open the entrance only to have Angel get incinerated by the sun."

"Yeah, I was worried about that too," Angel said, indicating the stairs at the end of the corridor. "Anyway, let's move; if we don't get out of here soon, they'll realise we've gone."

* * *

A few minutes later, the three of them were standing in the surgery; fortunately, it was empty at the present, and there hadn't been any signs that the situation would change any time soon.

Angel sighed as he stared around the room. He had to admit, it was a good thing that this place had probably never been intended for use by actual _patients_; it was hardly a pleasant environment to recover from injuries in. The walls were dark and depressing, the beds were unmade and looked like they hadn't been cleaned for ages, and the scalpels and other surgical tools were dirty and covered in blood. The doctors here evidently _weren't_ concerned about the possibilities of transmitting infections to their subjects.

"Glad I wasn't conscious when I was in here," Cole said, looking around the room with a sigh. "Probably would have felt even worse than I would have otherwise."

"I know what you mean," Doyle said, looking over at the other half-breed. "Getting your head cut open'd be bad enough, but getting your head cut open in _this _environment…"

He sighed. "You'd probably _want _them to much up; it's so darn _bleak_…"

"Well, we didn't come here to criticise the decoration; we came here to find out something about these chips," Angel said, as he looked around the surgery once again. There were some boxes to hold the surgical equipment, and the beds for the 'patients' to lie on while the chips were put into their heads, but that seemed to be about it. Nowhere that the chips could be being kept in…

"Well well; so you got out then?" a voice said from behind them.

The three figures spun around in shock, raising their weapons as they did so…

And their eyes fell on a man standing there who seemed oddly out-of-place with their surroundings. Unlike everyone else they'd seen so far (Baring the scientist woman Doyle had met upon his arrival who they were assuming was the person in charge), this man wasn't wearing a military uniform. He was wearing a black business suit, with a black tie, black shoes, and even a black shirt, and appeared to be in about his late fifties or early sixties. He had pale brown hair that was almost white, a neatly trimmed beard of the same colour, and a pair of half-moon glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose.

Cole's eyes widened in horror at the sight before him.

"YOU!" he yelled in rage.

The man smiled. "Me… Belthazor," he said, looking back at Cole with contempt blazing in his eyes. "I owe you, you know. That energy ball you hit me with last time took a lot out of me; I'm still not back to my full strength."

He chuckled as he looked around the surgery. "Of course, even at my weakest, I'm still strong enough to keep this place going. Honestly, if there's one thing I love about humans, it's that, at heart, they're so predictable; they'll always fear what's new to them, or what they don't understand."

* * *

"What are you?" Doyle asked, looking at the man curiously. He knew that the man wasn't human- the way he discussed humans was enough of a hint for anyone- but what he _was _couldn't quite be identified. He wasn't a demon- at least, not of the kind that Doyle was acquainted with- but then, what _was _he?

"Well, the name I go by at present in Professor Delgado, but that isn't what you're asking me specifically, is it?" the man replied, as he looked over at Doyle's new friend, who seemed to be fuming with anger as he stared at this new arrival. "Belthazor knows who I am, don't you, my old friend?"

"Yeah, and I wish I didn't," Cole said, glaring at the man in anger, his eyes briefly flicking to Angel and Doyle as they turned to face him. "Angel, Doyle… this is the Source himself."

* * *

"The Source?" Angel said, his eyes widening in horror as he looked at the 'man' before them. The Source may not bother with vampires much- they weren't his 'type' of demon, for lack of a better term- but he'd heard enough about him to know that any situation involving him would be bad news…

"But… but what does all this _accomplish_?" he asked, indicating the facility around them with a sweeping gesture. "Why go to all this effort to immobilise your own kind?"

"Correction; _your _own kind," the Source said, pointing at Angel with a mocking grin on his face; the kind of grin that suggested that all this was _funny _and none of them had quite gotten the joke… "_My _own kind is the magic-based offensive demons; the demons _this _facility examines rely more on brute strength than any actual magical abilities. I am eliminating the competition, and giving my kind the chance to claim the position that we should have claimed over these fools long ago…"

The he chuckled as he looked at the three of them. "Of course, the fact that it also allows me the chance to eliminate Belthazor _and _the vampire with a soul were very welcome bonuses."

He raised his hands before him and blue lightning energy began to crackle between them. "Now, it's time for you three to die, I feel."

Cole shook his head and raised his stolen gun.

"Not today," he vowed, as he squeezed the trigger, jamming the gun towards the Source just as the Source fired a bolt of 'electricity' towards the other demon. The two blasts met in between the two adversaries, sending massive bolts of energy flying back towards their originators, knocking both demons back against the nearby walls as they crackled with electricity.

"COLE!" Angel and Doyle cried, spinning around to look at their friend; naturally, neither of them could care less about the Source.

"Are you OK?" Angel asked, looking nervously at his friend.

Cole looked back up at Angel, his face slightly charred black by the explosion and burns, and…

Smiled?

"I'm better than OK," he said, as he glanced over at Doyle. "You mentioned that Phoebe had cast a spell that links you two together so that you can see what she sees? Can you tell me where she is at the moment?"

Doyle closed his eyes for a moment, and then looked back at Cole in slight confusion.

"She's… uh, still in Giles' apartment," he replied, puzzled at his strange friend's radical change of topic.

"Right then," Cole said, as he reached out and grabbed Angel and Cole's wrists. "Hold tight; even if I'm right, this might not be pleasant…"

He closed his eyes, concentrated hard…

* * *

And then, to Angel and Doyle's astonishment, they were standing in the middle of Giles's apartment, with Phoebe, Piper, Buffy and Willow staring at the three of them in shock.

Noting the baffled faces looking at him, Cole shrugged as he looked at Angel and Doyle.

"I thought there was a good chance that the chip had been shorted out by the blast, so I took a chance, and here we are," he said, before turning to look at Phoebe with a smile on his face. "Hello, Phoebe; I'm back."


	12. Plans, Discoveries, and Fears

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

"C… Cole?" Phoebe asked, staring at the red-skinned form in front of her, dressed in a military costume and looking at her with a slight smile on his face. She vaguely registered Doyle standing on one side of him, and a tall, pale-skinned man to the other side who must have been Angel, but she couldn't bring herself to be too concerned about him at the moment.

All that mattered was that _he _was there.

There may still be all kinds of stuff that they still didn't know about that facility that they'd been held in (The link between her and Doyle had been disrupted by something after he'd been knocked out; she knew he was awake, but not much else)… there may still be a lot of work their groups had to do to save the day…

But their three groups were now reunited.

Anything else was a mere secondary concern.

"Hi, Phoebe," Cole/Belthazor said, smiling briefly at her before looking around the room. "Good to see you, Piper- and I assume you two are Buffy and Willow, from what Angel told me?" he asked, looking over at the other witch and the Slayer, who were looking at him with a slight degree of apprehension. They must have assumed that the demon was Cole, given that he was with Doyle and Angel, but they must still have been a bit uncertain about his presence before Phoebe had confirmed his identity.

"Hi," Buffy said, before looking back over at Angel, trying to conceal her joy and relief at knowing he was all right. She knew that he could see it in her eyes, and, for the moment, that would have to be enough.

Once the Halliwells had the chance to go over the curse and find some way to get rid of the damn clause, _then _they'd most likely have time for a proper greeting.

"Hey," Angel said, as he and Doyle detached from 'Cole', the three of them sitting down in nearby chairs as the witches did the same; Phoebe evidently wasn't quite comfortable with Cole when he looked like _this_…

Then again, Buffy couldn't blame her. After all, she may have kissed Angel when he had his 'game face' on, but then she'd always known that it was still _Angel_ behind the fangs. From what Phoebe had told them earlier, the line between Cole and _his _demon was a lot less secure; apparently, Belthazor and Cole were two distinct individuals, and Cole mostly only exerted a certain degree of control over the demon.

If the demon ever lost control…

Buffy shook her head; she couldn't worry about that now. They had more important matters to attend to.

"Um… Cole?" she asked, looking over at the demon. "Could you just… y'know… turn human? Not that I'm being picky or anything- it's good to meet you, by the way- it's just that… well, it's not exactly easy having you looking… well, like _that_…"

She trailed off, suddenly concerned that she may have offended him. Belthazor, to her relief, merely smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, I understand where you're coming from, and I apologise about that, Miss Summers, but I don't really have any choice," Cole said, sighing slightly as he tapped his head. "Don't know if you already know this, but that facility sticks these chips in the heads of the demons they capture-"

"That renders the demons unable to hurt humans; we gathered that," Phoebe said, indicating the cupboard. "We've got some vampire called Spike in the cupboard who's got one of those chips in his head; he's been -"

Angel held up a hand to stop Phoebe talking as a slow grin spread across his face.

"Wait a minute; Spike can't hurt humans?" he asked, looking at the witch with an expression that resembled a child having just been told that Christmas had come early.

"Uh… yeah, that's right," Doyle said, looking over at Angel curiously. "Would have mentioned it earlier, but I wasn't sure it was the right time…"

Angel's eyes widened in surprise as he looked over at Doyle.

"You thought it 'wasn't the right time' to mention something that major?" Angel said, grinning over at the half-demon as he spoke. "Doyle, my friend, I would have been _far _more eager to get out if I knew that news! That guy has constantly gotten on my nerves ever since he was turned; having him become incapable of doing what he loves most is the equivalent of Christmas coming early!"

"Oh, shut _up_, you great poof!" a voice yelled from the cupboard.

Grinning, Angel slung one arm over the sofa and leaned back to look at the cupboard from which the voice had come from.

"Really, Spike?" he asked teasingly, an innocent smile on his face that was obviously meant to be anything _but _innocent. "And what are you going to do, exactly? Wave your fists about and have a headache at me? We _do _have more humans here than we do anything else; you try and hit me, there's a good chance someone else will get hit first, and what'll you do then?"

"_Plus_," Willow put in, looking over at the cupboard with a wicked little grin on her face, "how do we know that it's not the presence of a soul that activates the chip? Even if you actually _hit _Angel it might not do much good!"

A low growl was heard from the cupboard, which, to those members of the group that possessed enhanced hearing, sounded like 'Bloody poof…', but nothing else; evidently Spike couldn't be bothered coming up with a very elaborate retort.

"_Anyway_," Piper said, waving a hand to draw attention back to their group, "can we focus on the matter at hand right now? What do the chips have to do with Cole being all red and demon-ish on a permanent basis?"

"Oh yeah; sorry 'bout that," Doyle said, chuckling sheepishly before he patted Cole on the shoulder. "Anyway, these guys somehow stuck this chip in Cole's head that stops him transforming into his human form; o' course, it might've just been some side effect of however the chip stopped him from shimmering out of there straight away, but he's been stuck like this ever since we got in there."

Noting everyone's confused expressions, Cole just shrugged. "If you're wondering how they were able to stop me from shimmering, I can't answer you," he said. Then he glanced over at Piper. "Anyway, do you think Paige can get these things out of our heads?"

"Wh- oh yeah, her power!" Phoebe said, spinning around to look at her other sister with a grin on her face. "Could you call Paige and-"

Willow, however, raised a hand to stop the witch's eager expression. "Too risky to try that until we know more about _how _that chip's attached to the brain," she said, hating to watch Phoebe's hopes fall, but knowing that it was for the best. "For all we know, it could be so far in that any attempt to orb it out would take away some tissue by mistake; I'd rather Paige could tell what she's calling to herself before we try anything like that."

"Oh… uh, right," Phoebe said, sighing as she sat back down and looked over at Cole. "Sorry, sweetie."

Cole shrugged. "I've spent most of my life looking like this before I met you; I can manage for a few more hours," he said dismissively.

"Well, now that we've got a plan for resolving _that _issue," Doyle said, leaning forward to look around the room at the others, "what's our next move?"

"Yeah, we need to think about that…" Willow said, leaning forward, her chin in her hand, and looking at the other people in the room. "I mean, look at it; what do we know about the people in this place, baring the fact that for them 'demonbad' and they aren't even prepared to find out whether the demons are actually _dangerous_?"

"Well…" Cole muttered, as he looked around the room, exchanging sheepish glances with Angel and Doyle; they probably should have mentioned this earlier, but it had never seemed like the right time.

"We _do _know that they've been infiltrated by an old friend of his," Doyle explained as he took up the story, indicating Cole as he spoke.

"Well, 'friend' isn't quite the right word," Cole said, as he looked over at Piper and Phoebe to make sure they understood what he was saying. "The last time we met, he was trying to convince you to give up your powers by making you believe that you were insane."

Piper and Phoebe's eyes widened in horror as they stared at Cole.

"But… but you injured him!" Phoebe protested, as though desperate for Belthazor of all people to laugh and say that he'd only been joking. "You said we wouldn't see him for a _while_! _This is not a while_!"

"He's still not back at full strength yet," Cole assured her, trying not to let his own fear show; he knew as well as anyone that even a weakened Source was one to be feared. "He must have decided that he needed to keep this situation under control, so he took the risk and came back before he was back to full health."

"Um, excuse me, but who are you talking about?" Buffy asked, looking at the two witches and the demon in confusion.

"Basically?" Piper said, looking back at the Slayer with a nervous look on her face. "We're talking the Source of all evil magic- based demons; big, bad, tough, and dangerous."

She glanced back at Cole. "That _is _who you're talking about, right?"

Cole nodded, and Phoebe groaned.

"Great…" she muttered to herself as she stared up at the ceiling of the small apartment. "As if we didn't enough problems…"

"And, lemme guess, we couldn't just batter him into submission?" Buffy asked, looking over at Cole for confirmation.

The demon shook his head. "He can only be stopped with magic; try and kill him with your bare hands and you'll only get him annoyed at you. I managed to injure him last time we fought with an energy ball, but I can't guarantee there's a way to stop him for good at the moment."

Buffy sighed. "Great…" she muttered, clasping her forehead and staring upwards for a few moments, before she sat forward and looked around at the others. "Well, we'll get back to that later, OK? In the meantime, I think our next move should be to get everyone back here, update them on the current situation, and then get Paige and Willow to take these guys into a hospital so we can figure out how to extract those chips before we decide how best to infiltrate this base."

Piper nodded. "Good idea," she said to the Slayer, before looking over at the others. "Anyone got anything they'd like to add before the others get here?"

The rest of the group shook their heads, apart from Cole, who was looking over at the cupboard containing Spike with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What?" Phoebe asked, looking at her demon lover sharply.

"Hmm?" Cole muttered, looking back at her. "Oh, sorry; I just had a thought that might give us some more firepower."

"Which is?" Angel asked, looking over at his new friend.

"Well, it just occurred to me that, when Angel and I were tricked into fighting each other down in that complex, neither of us experienced any pain from the chips," Cole explained, as he looked around the room. "Of course, the scientists _had _somehow 'limited' the chip to allow me to use my energy balls, so I could be wrong, but it seems logical to assume that the chips don't stop the demons with them from attacking other demons…"

Buffy held up a hand.

"Hold on a minute," she said, staring at Cole harshly. "Are you honestly suggesting that we ask _Spike _for help? The man's a homicidal maniac with a penchant for impalement-!"

"Who's lost the means to vent his frustration on his normal victims," Cole replied casually as he looked back at Buffy. "In his current state, he'll be looking for something else to attack, especially since he may never get back to 'normal' as far as he knows. If it helps, you can think of him as a weapon; just point him in the right direction, if it's necessary, and let him loose."

"This facility is run by _humans_, Cole, remember?" Doyle said, looking over at the ex-assassin. "How are we meant to use Spike in there?"

"With the Source active?" Piper shrugged, glancing over at the half-Irish demon. "Trust me; we'll need all hands on deck, as soon as the others get back."

_And the sooner the better…_ Angel mused to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

He hadn't mentioned this to anyone else, but while he was in the surgery, he'd smelled something that he didn't recognise and didn't like the scent off. It almost seemed like a combination of human, demon, and machine, except there was some extra factor that he couldn't identify, baring the fact that it reminded him of the scent of Cole's energy balls.

He sincerely hoped that he was getting worked-up about nothing, but, if his theory was correct, there was something down there that was very big, very powerful, and more than likely dangerous…

God, I hope I'm wrong. 


	13. Chip Extraction

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

"Oh God…" Riley Fin muttered to himself as he blinked his eyes open. "What _happened _to me…?"

Then his eyes widened in horror as he remembered.

"_Angelus_!" he yelled, sitting up sharply and looking around in confusion, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to focus on his surroundings. "Where is he? What happened to him!"

"Agent Finn, please calm down," Professor Walsh's cool, commanding voice said to him from his left. "You and your fellows have only recently recovered from a near-fatal close-range attack with one of our own stun guns. Angelus, Belthazor, and the Brachen have somehow managed to escape the base whilst avoiding all detection, but we are devoting all resources to locating and recapturing or destroying them, I assure you."

His eyes finally clear, Riley glanced down at himself and saw that he was still wearing his combat trousers and shoes, but his jumper had been removed and there were several bandages around his chest; evidently the stun weapon had left him with some injuries due to the sheer power of the blast. Fit though Riley was, even with all his enhancements he still couldn't take something that would put down a century-old vampire without it having a significant effect.

Still, as he remembered Angelus's last words to him, he couldn't help but be grateful that he was up again. If that… _thing _had so much as touched Buffy in the past- sweet, innocent Buffy- he knew that were was only one logical explanation for it.

Rape.

Buffy Summers, that sweet, innocent girl who he had feelings for, had been raped.

No _wonder _she was so uncomfortable around men, especially after Parker's rejection…

He had to prevent it from happening again; who was to say Angelus wouldn't be even _worse _this time round?

"I have to go," he said, looking over at Walsh. "I have an idea about where Angelus might have gone, but I'd prefer to make sure myself before we commit anyone else to it."

Noting Walsh's harsh glare, he raised his hands in a defensive manner. "I'm not going to try and tackle him alone, I promise you; I just want to make sure that this situation's under control, and I'll come back as soon as I can if there's any sign of trouble."

After a moment's pause, Walsh reluctantly nodded.

"Very well," she said, nodding briefly at Riley. "Professor Delgado and Doctor Spiner recently gave me an update on your physical situation; so long as you avoid strenuous activity for a prolonged period of time, you will be fine."

She glared harshly at her young protégé. "Just remember; come back if you so much as _think _you see a hostile anywhere."

* * *

As Paige walked down the path towards Giles' apartment, followed by her brother-in-law and two of their new friends, she couldn't help but sigh slightly. The trip to the Magic Box hadn't gone as well as it could have as far as gathering potion ingredients went. True, the ingredients available there were good if you wanted to perform basic spells when you had little actual magic powers yourself, but if you already _had _magic powers, and were just looking for something to use in a potion, it was far more difficult.

Glancing over at her companions, though, she acknowledged that, for Giles and Cordelia's line of work, this line of magic would make more sense. From what Leo had told her and the others on the way down, they had rarely ever encountered a demon who couldn't be easily beaten in a purely physical confrontation; they practically never encountered an adversary who could only be defeated by a potion or spell of some kind, so why would particularly elaborate potions be needed?

_How come _we _never have it that easy_? she asked herself, as she opened the door, stepped into the apartment…

And nearly dropped her shopping in surprise as she saw Buffy, Willow, Piper and Phoebe sitting at the sofa casually talking with Doyle, Belthazor, and a pale-skinned man who could only be Angel. Paige briefly found herself thinking that the guy was actually pretty hot, but stopped herself in time; the look he was 'secretly' giving Buffy was more evidence than any that he was as good as taken right now.

"What the- DOYLE!" Cordelia squealed- practically into Paige's ear- as she saw her friend in the apartment. Dumping her shopping bags in Paige's outstretched arms, the ex-cheerleader ran towards the surprised-but-pleased looking Irish demon, grabbed him by the ears, hauled him up onto his feet, and planted a firm kiss onto his lips.

If Doyle had been standing up, Paige wouldn't have been surprised if Cordelia had jumped onto him and wrapped her legs around him before proceeding to snog him stupid; she was just grateful that they wouldn't have to help anyone up after collapsing to the ground in a fit of passion.

Looking over at the door as Leo and Giles came in, staring at the suddenly-kissing pair in surprise, Buffy just shrugged helplessly, as though to say _Don't blame me; they started it_.

Of course, it couldn't last; as soon as Cordelia and Doyle parted for breath, she drew back a hand and slapped him in the face before grabbing his chin and turning his head to look her in the eyes.

"If you _ever _do something like this again I'll cut your leg off!" she yelled at him angrily. "Do you have any _idea _who worried I was when we lost touch after you were hit with a _staser_? I didn't know if you were alive or dead! _You hear me_!"

"Uh… yeah," Doyle said, nodding briefly at his new 'girlfriend' (For lack of a better term) in a slight daze, before glancing over at the others. "Ah, ye're back!"

"Yeah, at last we can get something done; having this guy sitting around looking like this is starting to get _really _uncomfortable…" Buffy said, indicating Belthazor before looking over at him apologetically. "No offence."

"None taken, I assure you," Belthazor smiled back, nodding in understanding before he glanced over at Paige. "We need your help here; turns out those Initiative guys gave the three of us those chips that they stuck in Spike's head- my one's somehow stopping me from changing back into Cole- and we need your help to get them out."

"We don't want to just _orb _them out- no way of knowing how they're connected up to the rest of the brain- so we were thinking that you and Leo could get us into the hospital and I could check their heads with a CAT scanner," Willow explained, taking up the story. "Then you can orb them out, the guys can get back to normal, and we can get on with taking this place out; sound good?"

Paige nodded. "Seems OK; let's go," she said, glancing over at Leo. "Guessing we'll need to divide up to orb, huh?"

Leo nodded. "Yeah, four people for one Whitelighter might be a bit too difficult," he said, shrugging casually as he turned to look at Willow, Doyle, Belthazor and Angel, who were already standing up and looking at him inquiringly. "Doyle, Willow, you two go on ahead with Paige. Cole, Angel and I will join you; just call me when you've found somewhere safe for us to orb in." Paige nodded in understanding; Belthazor's appearance might attract a _bit _too much attention if they weren't careful.

"We'll fill Giles in on the latest events while you're gone," Buffy said, as she, Piper and Phoebe stood up and glanced over at the Watcher. "Trust me, Giles; the situation is getting more complicated all the time."

"Oh dear…" Giles sighed, as he sat down and looked over at his Slayer and the two witches. "Well, we'd better get started."

Taking that as a cue to exit, Paige grabbed Doyle and Willow's arms, closed her eyes, and focused her mind on the hospital she and her sisters had seen as they drove into this town…

* * *

And then the three of them were standing outside Sunnydale hospital, in the shade of some bushes off to one side, looking nervously at each other in the rising sun.

Willow, by dint of being the only one with experience of this place, took charge and led the way into the hospital, glancing around briefly to make sure that the coast was clear before she turned around and waved the others over to an empty room near the entrance.

"Now?" Paige asked Willow, the witch closing the room's curtains as Doyle glanced around the corridor nervously before closing the door.

Willow nodded. "Now's as good as any," she said, indicating a few doctor's gowns that were tossed over the beds. "Cole can wear those until we can get the chip out of his head; it should conceal enough of his appearance to avoid attracting unwanted attention."

Paige shrugged. "Works, I suppose," she said, as she stood back and raised her head. "Leo, we're ready!"

Then, before any of the three people in the room could even blink, Leo, Angel and Belthazor were standing in the middle of the room, Angel already glancing around the room to make sure that they were safe.

"Well… that was quick," Leo said, looking over at Willow.

The young witch just shrugged dismissively. "After all the time we've had to come here following a battle, I'd have to be an idiot _not _to know my way around this place," she said casually, before grabbing the hospital gowns and passing them over to Belthazor. "You'd better get into this until we can get to the X-ray machine; it should at least keep the more… _distinctive _parts of you concealed until we can sort this out."

Nodding, Belthazor shrugged the green gown on over his traditional black outfit, placing the surgical mask and hat on as soon as he was done. Giving him a quick once-over, the rest of the group were satisfied; his skin behind the mask was still a rather vibrant shade of red, of course, but so long as he kept his hands in his pockets and avoiding looking directly at anyone they passed, they should manage to avoid attracting any attention.

"OK," Willow said, as she shrugged on a gown of her own. "If anyone asks, Cole and I are taking Angel and Doyle to get their heads X-rayed after a nasty concussion, and Leo and Paige are friends who want to make sure they get there in good shape; got that?"

The others nodded.

"Good," Willow said, as she indicated the door. "Angel, Doyle, just let Paige and Leo support you, and try and look disoriented; we'll take it from there."

As they left the room, Angel slumped slightly over Leo's shoulders while Paige supported Doyle, Willow glanced briefly at a nearby floor plan and was relieved to see that the X-ray machine wasn't that far away; hopefully they'd manage to get there soon.

Walking down the corridors as casually as they could, Willow was relieved when nobody stopped to challenge their presence in the hospital; this was working out far better than she'd hoped. Eventually they reached the room in question, Willow sighing in relief after she'd confirmed that it was unoccupied at the present, and then they'd slipped inside it, glancing around in relief as Willow spotted the CAT scanner in the centre of the room.

"Perfect," she said, smiling over at the machine before looking back at Angel, Belthazor and Doyle. "You'd better go first, Cole; if you can turn back into your human form as soon as possible, it'll make things easier for us if we're interrupted."

"Agreed," Belthazor said, shrugging the gown off and removing his mask, before lying on the indicated bed and sliding his head into the slot where the scanner would examine his brain. As Leo took up a position at the door, to make sure that nobody could disturb them, Willow dashed over to the control panel of the CAT scanner and began tapping a few buttons as she studied the readout in front of her.

"Well?" Doyle said, glancing over at Willow inquiringly, as Paige joined the other witch to study the resulting image. "What's the verdict?"

Paige nodded thoughtfully as she studied the image, before looking back at the others in the room.

"It'll be tricky, but I could orb that out easily enough," she said, as she studied the small black rectangle on the brain that represented the chip. "Just… probably best you have this thing giving me a picture so I can see what I'm doing."

Holding out her hand, Paige said "Chip!", and smiled in relief when the objects in question appeared in her hand, even if it was covered in blood and other things.

"Is that it?" Belthazor said, glancing at the object in Paige's hand in surprise. "I didn't even feel anything."

"Well, you wouldn't; the brain has no feeling," Willow explained, as she waved Doyle over as Belthazor sat up and got off the bed. "Anyway, enough about that; care to make sure you're back to normal?"

"Sure thing," Belthazor replied, closing his eyes as he shimmered slightly and then reappeared as a tall, handsome man with brown hair and a high forehead, wearing a dark blue shirt and black trousers.

Looking over himself, he smiled in approval as he looked back up at the others.

"Well, it worked," he said casually, as he turned to look at Angel and held out a hand. "Hi; Cole Turner. Good to meet you properly at last."

Angel smiled back at his new friend as he took the offered hand. "Same here, Cole," he said, as Doyle stepped away from the CAT scanner, another chip in Paige's hand. Stepping over to the scanner, Angel lay down on the table, waited for a few moments, and then smiled over at Paige and Willow as a third chip joined the two already in Paige's possession.

"Right then," Paige said, as she dropped the three chips onto the ground and glanced over at Leo. "Shall we get back to the others?"

"Just one thing, please," Cole said, as he walked over to where the chips lay on the ground and drove his foot down hard, smiling as he heard the crunch of silicon under his heel. "OK then, we can go."

* * *

As he stood outside the apartment belonging to Rupert Giles, Riley briefly wondered if this had really been the right person to ask about Buffy's whereabouts. He'd gathered from a few half-overheard conversations that Buffy and her small group of friends regarded their former librarian as an old friend, but was he really likely to know where Buffy was?

But he didn't have any other option if he was going to find Buffy before Angelus did.

And with Belthazor _and _that Brachen demon on his side…

Riley shuddered at the obscene image that couldn't stop itself from appearing in his head. _One _demon doing… _that _to Buffy was bad enough; he didn't need to think of any more attempting to have their way with her.

He had to save her from that.

He was the only person alive who could.

Raising his right hand, Riley knocked on the door, and a moment later Mr Giles was standing at the door, adjusting his glasses as he looked at Riley in confusion.

"Uh… you are?" he asked, trying to look more professional as he looked at Riley with a more critical expression.

"Mr Giles?" Riley said, trying to remain calm as he addressed the man who may be his only hope at saving Buffy. "My name is Riley Finn; I'm a psychology teaching assistant in Buffy Summers' class. I understand that you know her from your time as the librarian of Sunnydale High School?"

"Well, um, a little, I suppose," Giles said, as he looked at Riley in confusion once again. "I'm sorry, I fail to understand what this has to do with anything-"

"Mr Giles, I have reason to believe that Buffy is in danger," Riley said, trying to avoid just punching this man in frustration at his apparent ineptitude at providing any useful information and wishing he could show the man his military pass to make him understand how serious this whole affair was. "Can you please tell me where she-"

His mouth slammed shut as, glancing into the apartment, he noticed an arm clad in a dirty brown leather coat slung over a sofa, just visible in the gap between Mr Giles' shoulder and the door frame.

He recognised that coat.

It was the coat that the Brachen demon had been wearing when he'd been taken into the Initiative.

Reaching into his coat, Riley pulled out a gun and, before Giles could stop him, had shoved past the ex-librarian and into the apartment…

Where he found himself facing a surprisingly large amount of people for such a small space.

He instantly recognised Buffy and Willow, of course- he saw them on campus every _day_, after all-, and their friends (Alex Harras and Tanya Jenkins, he thought their names were), but there were four women and two men he didn't recognise. One of the men was dressed in a casual plaid shirt and jeans, while the other was wearing a more professional-looking costume of dark trousers and shirt. Three of the women looked like they were sisters, as well as apparently being in their mid-twenties, and the fourth woman was around Buffy's age, sitting next to…

Riley's eyes once again widened in horror.

The Brachen demon, sitting there as though he had every right to sit here with decent, _normal _human beings…

And sitting near to him, between Buffy and the Brachen…

_Angelus_!

Riley knew what he should do at this point; despite all the questions that would arise, he should taser both demons instantly before any civilians could be hurt, take them to a secure location, and _then _worry about explanations.

But another part of him- the larger part- just couldn't believe this was happening. How could Buffy be so _casual_, sitting there beside the… the _thing _that had _raped _her…

Then Angelus broke the silence that had descended over the room with Riley's entrance.

"Oh look; it's the walking fish."


	14. Exchanging Prisoners

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

Riley weakly opened and closed his mouth as he stared at Angelus in shock, trying to come up with some kind of counter to the vampire's statement. However, this was rendered practically impossible due to the fact that Riley was unable to even articulate a question as to what the vampire was doing here so soon after getting out of the Initiative, as well as trying to figure out why nobody seemed to mind this… this _thing_… being here after what he had done to Buffy, to say nothing of why they were so accepting of his freakish associates…

"Wait a minute; you know Riley?" Willow asked, looking over at Angelus in surprise. "How'd that happen?"

The man in the dark outfit, confusingly enough, answered that question; Riley had no idea how he could know the answer over anyone else in the room. "Simple enough, Miss Rosenberg; he was a member of the team that kidnapped us," he said, his gaze turning to look critically at Riley as he spoke. "By the way, Mr Finn, I really hope you're in worse shape than you look; I'd hate to think that we went to all that effort to break out and didn't manage to do anything more than annoy you a little."

"But… but…" Riley said, looking from the man in dark clothes to Angelus, trying to figure out exactly _why _everybody in the room seemed to suddenly be looking at him as though he was the _villain_, rather than the hero he truly was. After all, here he was, risking his life to try and warn Buffy that Angelus was back, regardless of the beating he'd just taken from Angelus and his associates only a few hours ago, and now here she was, talking with the vampire as though he _hadn't _violated her in the most intimate, terrible way imaginable…

"Yes?" the Brachen asked, looking casually at Riley. "You have something ye want ter ask us about, or are ye just going to stammer there like a sick wombat until the cows come home?"

"Actually, he's not," Buffy said, as she got up and walked towards him. Riley allowed himself a small smile of relief; she was obviously going to ask him to take her away from all this, away from the creature that had hurt her so much in the past, away from this nightmare, away from these people who didn't even seem to care about what Angelus had done to her…

Then she suddenly hit him in the face with such force that he was sent flying back into the nearby wall; he could have _sworn _he felt the plaster crack behind him, he hit it so hard.

"_That _was for messing with Angel and his friends!" Buffy yelled at him as he looked up at her in confusion, his nose bleeding profusely as he tried to understand what had just happened, simultaneously gasping for breath so that he could ask the question that he now needed to know the answer to more than anything, the question that would put an end to his wonderings about what the hell was going on around here…

"But… but he _raped _you!" Riley cried at last, deciding he might as well get the facts out in the open; maybe a part of Buffy was lying to him out of some psychological fear of rejection (Not that he would do something like that; he knew that the rape couldn't have been her fault). "How can you _defend _him after _that_!"

"Raped?" Buffy said, looking over at Angelus in confusion, leaving Riley suddenly feeling rather nervous; had something happened to Buffy's mind because of the trauma of what had happened, or was he totally wrong about what had taken place here? "What is going _on _with this guy?"

"OK," Angelus sighed, looking apologetically at Buffy, as though he actually had the ability to _feel _something instead of being a ruthless monster, "while we were captured, trying to provoke these guys into making a mistake that might allow us to get out of our cell, I _did _tell him that I thought you were… what did I say again?"

"He said you were 'a good kisser, great in bed'; we needed something to get these guys angry enough to want a confrontation," Belthazor chipped in, looking at Riley with a smirk on his face that seemed more like a man enjoying a good joke than a known murderer. "Sorry, but we needed to provoke this guy. Anyway, sounds like farm-boy here must've assumed that Angel here came by that knowledge in a more… _violent_ manner, shall we say?… than he _actually_ did."

"Ah," Buffy said, as she turned back to glare at Riley, a renewed expression of growing anger and rage on her face as she confronted the man who had once just been her psychology teaching assistant. "So, let me see if I get this right; you heard that I'd done it with a vampire, and you just _assumed _that Angel raped me? You _assumed _that he was like every other vampire you've ever abducted and treated like some frog in the dissection lab? You just _assumed _that he's evil for the sole reason that he isn't exactly human?"

Reaching over, she grabbed Riley by the shirt and hauled him nearly a foot off the ground, leaving Riley staring at her in shock and confusion as Buffy glared up at him.

"_You need to learn that things aren't always as black and white as that, you idiot_!" she yelled at him, angrier than many of her friends had ever seen her, before she threw Riley a few feet back along the room, hitting the wall near the door.

As he staggered to his feet, staring at Buffy in shock and confusion as the rest of the group stared critically at him, Riley opened his mouth to say something in reply. However, making a snap decision, Piper raised her hands and flicked them, causing Riley to freeze just as his mouth opened in a feeble attempt to protest. Not only did the freeze stop Riley saying anything in his defence (Not that anyone would have paid attention to him anyway), but it had the added rather humorous bonus of leaving the young psychology teaching assistant looking very like the fish that merited his nickname, given the fact that his mouth was wide open.

* * *

"Thanks," Buffy said, nodding in approval at the witch before turning to look at the others; now that Riley was out of their hair, they just had to decide what to do with him and then they could get back to the more important business of storming the Initiative. "Any ideas where we should stick him before he wakes up?"

"Maybe we could put _him _in the closet instead of Spike?" Willow suggested casually. "After all, we might as well start giving that guy a chance if he's going to be helping us out at the moment, right? Besides, when you get down to it, we can't exactly let Riley go back to the military guys _now_, and if we keep him around, once the freeze wears off, he might be able to give us more information than we've been able to get from _Spike_ so far, huh?"

Phoebe shrugged nonchalantly. "Works for me," she said, as she turned to look at the closet in question and then glanced back at Riley. "I mean, hey; this guy stuck my boyfriend in a prison cell just for being a bit different from everyone else. I _think _that entitles me to want him to be a bit uncomfortable, right?"

"Ah well," Buffy sighed, as she and Doyle grabbed Riley's immobile form, lifted him up, and headed for the cupboard, "I guess we might as well see if the _other _concerned party is interested in a trade, huh?"

Opening the cupboard, she glared critically at Spike, who blinked slightly as the light from the apartment struck his eyes.

"_What_?" he said, glaring at Buffy as she stuck Riley's immobilized form off to one side and glared at him. "Did something happen that I should know about, or do you just feel like calling me scum to my _face _this time?"

"Nope; something happened we felt ye should know," Doyle said, staring at the vampire harshly as he spoke. "We're prepared ta let you out, and maybe see about getting your chip out, _if _you help us deal with the Initiative thing."

Spike rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, I'm _really _going to believe _that_," he said, groaning as he looked up at Doyle. "In case you'd forgotten, I can't _hurt _anybody with this sodding chip in my head! Do you _really _think I'm dumb enough to believe that you'll take the chip out on my word that I won't kill you all?"

Buffy shook her head.

"No, we're not; we're simply assuming that you'll be willing to provide back-up if we encounter something down there that _isn't _human," she explained, glaring critically at Spike. "We've got information that suggests these guys have some demons working in there in secret- _why_ those guys are helping to dissect their own kind we're not entirely sure; we'll worry about the specifics of it later- but the net result is, we're going to need some extra muscle, and you meet the requirements. We _don't _think you won't try to kill us once you're normal, but we're not going to let anyone accuse us of breaking our word; just so long as you understand we'll try and kill you if you try and kill us, I'm sure everything will be fine."

She tilted her head to one side in an enquiring manner as she looked critically at the man once known as 'William the Bloody', bound in a closet as he glared back at her in annoyance.

"So, what'll it be?" she asked him casually.

Spike stared back at her for a moment, then groaned and nodded.

"All right, I'll help out," he said, sounding like he felt like having a good sulk at the moment, but prepared to put it aside for the moment if it meant his freedom from his enforced confinement. "Just don't expect me to be nice and let you off the hook for all this when I get the bloody chip out, OK?"

"We expected nothing less," Doyle said, nodding as he began to untie the bonds that surrounded Spike's arms and legs. As soon as the vampire was able to move, Doyle took his arm and hauled him out of the chair, while Buffy grabbed Riley's still-immobile body and hauled it out from behind the door.

"What the…?" Spike said, staring at the immobilised Iowan in surprise as he emerged from behind the door. "What the hell is _he _doing here?"

"He captured me and Cole, Spike," Angel put in, prompting a slight groan from Spike as he turned to look at his grandsire with an annoyed expression.

"What, and you just _had _to drag him along as well?" Spike asked, glaring sarcastically at the vampire, as well as a man in a dark blue shirt and black trousers who he assumed was this 'Cole' they had been discussing earlier. "Couldn't you have just left him back where he was?"

"Actually, _he _came _here_; we were perfectly content to leave him where he was and get back on our own terms," 'Cole' added, glaring slightly at Spike as the rest of the room looked critically at the vampire. "Anyway, enough of that; we've got a decent attack strategy worked out, but we want to go over it with you."

Spike nearly told them where they could stick it, but controlled his reaction, tried to shrug nonchalantly, and sat down on the sofa beside the others. After all, whatever they wanted him to do, at least he was out of the cupboard; he'd be prepared to take whatever came next as it came.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked, ignoring the slight looks of uncertainty and hatred the rest of the group were giving him, and just wishing that they _didn't _already most likely know about Angel's past; he might have found it easier to cope if he could ruin his grandsire's rep among these losers…

* * *

"So, is everyone clear on the plan?" Buffy said a couple of hours later, as the Scooby Gang/Fang Gang/Charmed Ones gathering sat around Giles' coffee table, studying the sketch Angel had made of the plans he'd seen for the Initiative on the floor plan that he, Cole and Doyle had used.

"Yep; sounds good to me," Piper said. Glancing over at Angel, the witch and the Slayer exchanged nods; as the respective 'leaders' of their three groups, Buffy, Piper and Angel had taken charge of the meeting and developing the fine print of the plan.

"Let's recap," Buffy said, as she studied the map. "The Charmed Ones come up with a spell to temporarily negate the Initiative's power supply, allowing us to enter without worrying about the defence systems…"

"Cole shimmers into the lower levels with Doyle, Spike and me, and we see what we can do about finding that thing I sensed…" Angel put in.

"Willow, Buffy, Paige, Phoebe and I enter via the 'front door' and cause as much damage as we can while trying to track down the Source…" Piper added.

"Xander, Anya, Cordelia, Leo and Giles get in afterwards, take up some of the Initiative's weapons, and generally try to take out anyone still standing," Buffy finished, as she looked over at the respective group. "Think you can manage your role in that, Leo?"

The former medic nodded. "Yeah, orbing isn't too draining, so long as I allow myself a few minutes' rest between orbs where I'm carrying a lot of people," he explained. "I'll probably have to keep on the move if we want _everyone _to get out of there in one piece, but I'll do what I can."

"Still say it'd be easier to just kill the bastards…" Spike grumbled.

"We've been over this, Spike; they're _human_," Phoebe put in, glaring over at the vampire. "They may not be pleasant people, but I think the destruction of their lives' work will be punishment enough; besides, Paige, Piper and I should be able to wipe their memories of everything easily enough if they don't get the message."

"Right," Buffy said, standing up and looking around the room at their makeshift army, "Now that that's sorted out, let's go; we've only got a few hours of darkness left, and we'd best make the most of it."


	15. Let the Showdowns Begin

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

Half an hour later, the large group was standing in the grounds of Sunnydale University, with everyone going over the weaponry they'd taken from Giles' apartment to help mount the attack. Giles, Phoebe and Leo had decided that swords were their weapon of choice for this fight, Paige, Cordelia and Willow were armed with daggers, and Spike and Xander had selected axes as their weapon of choice for this attack.

Buffy, Angel, Doyle, Piper and Cole had declined weapons; Piper and Cole could naturally defend themselves fairly easily, and Buffy, Angel and Doyle had decided they'd prefer to rely on their own natural strength rather than any extra weapons. Spike was only taking the axe so that it gave him a bit more choice in his now-limited options of murder; without the ability to kill humans, he seemed more comfortable with having a longer reach than most of his opponents.

"OK, so, once more; everyone's clear on the plan?" Buffy asked, glancing around at the team, after making sure there was nobody nearby who could see the odd assortment of people armed with medieval weaponry in the middle of the campus.

Piper was currently standing in the middle of the group holding a map of the facility that Angel had sketched from memory; he acknowledged that it probably lacked some of the finer details, but he was confident that he had the essential aspects recorded accurately. As Buffy spoke, the group gathered around Piper to study the map once more.

"Yep; think so," Paige said, looking back at Buffy. "We take out the power, and then Angel, Cole, Spike and Doyle track down that… _thing _that seems to be in the basement, while the rest of us create as much fuss at the entrance as possible; correct?"

"Precisely, Miss Matthews," Giles said, nodding briefly at Paige in confirmation of her assessment.

"Right then; let's get going," Piper said, nodding at the group as she folded the map up and tucked it into her back pocket.

"Too bad we couldn't have quizzed Fish-Boy more about what we're dealing with," Xander added, sighing slightly in annoyance.

"Hey, you heard the guy; even under the truth spell, he hasn't got the foggiest idea what they've got down there," Phoebe said, looking over at Xander as the assorted people split up into their groups for the assault. She was already standing with Piper and Paige, above the area that, according to their best guess based on the information they'd gathered, was pretty much directly above the centre of the Initiative facility; from there, the spell to knock out the power should have a fairly immediate effect. "We can't get information from him if he doesn't know it in the first place."

"Besides," Willow added from off to one side, "you saw how hard it was for us to even get that much out of him; it looks like these soldiers have been somehow conditioned to resist mind control, so even if he _did _know it, we might not have been able to get the information from him."

"Let's just get this over with," Phoebe said, as she raised the paper on which she'd written the spell, allowing Paige and Piper to see it as the two of them began to speak.

"_By the power of electric  
__Are contained the Old Ones;  
__Let this power the bucket kick,  
__And shut down our opponents' guns_!"

As the spell finished, there was a brief surge, as though something had just exploded without actually _destroying _anything, and then the whole campus was plunged into darkness.

"What the…?" Leo said, looking around in surprise. "I thought we only wanted to shut down the _Initiative's_ power source?"

"They must have been tapping into the college's power supply to get their power," Willow said, looking over apologetically at the other witches. "Sorry; I didn't think of that earlier."

"On the topic of not thinking earlier, you _really _didn't spend much time on that spell, did you?" Buffy said, looking over at Phoebe, who just giggled sheepishly. "I mean, 'let this power the bucket kick'?"

"_Well_, what's done is done," Cole interrupted before the conversation could proceed any further. "Let's just get this over and done with."

As he spoke, the half-demon had already reached over to clasp Angel and Doyle's shoulders; Spike had a hand on Angel's shoulder already. "Let's just get down to business and stop these guys; if we have the time, we can apologise for the mistake and discuss the bad poetry later."

He closed his eyes, focused…

* * *

And the four of them were soon standing inside the facility that all of them had, albeit briefly, been imprisoned in, each of them itching to start tearing the place apart. 

Glancing around, Angel smiled and nodded approvingly at Cole.

"Nice job," he said, as Cole removed his hands from his friends' shoulders and, grinning, transformed into the red-and-black form of Belthazor; it may attract more attention, but right now they wanted power rather than stealth.

"You're welcome," the former assassin said, nodding at Angel as he glanced over at Spike and Doyle. "We'd better transform; the more firepower we've got on offer when we find this… _thing_… the better, if you want my opinion on the matter."

"All for that," Spike said, grinning as he shifted into his vampire face, Angel doing the same as Doyle's skin became green and black spines burst from his face and hands. For a moment, as he looked at his friend, Angel smiled to see Doyle look so comfortable in his demon form; it was as though, with Cordelia's acceptance of him, Doyle had finally learned to accept _himself_…

Angel shook his head; there'd be time to dwell on Doyle's new apparent acceptance of himself later. Right now, they had to find-

Suddenly, several loud crackles and sparks, much like the sound made by a defibrillator- albeit significantly louder- echoed through the corridors. As soon as the first burst of 'electricity' had reached their ears, the four part-demons (Spike may not have a soul, but vampires still weren't regarded as _demons _in many cases, so Angel felt the phrase still counted as accurate) spun around in the direction of the noise.

There was nothing there; just the corridor…

And, now that Angel looked closer, he could see a door at the end of the corridor, labelled 314.

He glanced back at his friends and… associate, for lack of a better means of describing Spike… and tilted his head to one side in an enquiring manner.

"Shall we?" he asked.

"Well, we've got to start somewhere," Belthazor said, as he flexed his fingers eagerly as he began to walk towards the door, followed by Angel and Doyle. Spike was at the back of the group, lagging a few feet behind them, fuming slightly as he glared at the heads of the other three and constantly glanced at his axe.

If it wasn't for the fact that at least two of the three people in front of him could move significantly faster than he could- or at least move fast enough to dodge his attack- he would've tried to decapitate them all already and take his chances.

But, as it was, they were, so he couldn't.

He'd just have to wait and hope that he got the chance to kill something soon; if he didn't kill something soon, he might just kill _himself _in frustration at having nothing else to attack…

Then the small group reached the door that the sound was coming from.

Glancing back at the others, as though for permission, Belthazor nodded grimly as he placed one hand on the door handle and opened it.

The sight on the other side of the door was enough to horrify even Angel, who had been witness to (And indeed, _committed_) some horrific acts during his time as Angelus. The room at first appeared to be nothing more than a laboratory, albeit one that seemed to have been used as a dissecting lab judging by the boxes that (If the labels were accurate) had once contained organs, both human and demon. As one studied the scene further, they realised that several of the organs had been cut up, parts left lying around while other parts appeared to have been moved to somewhere else.

_The 'somewhere else' in question_, Angel thought to himself, _being, presumably, the guy on the table in the centre_.

He _hated _it when he was right about stuff like this; just once, he wanted to be wrong and have an easy time of it.

He was prepared to bet that similar thoughts were flying through the minds of the other three; the figure lying in the middle of the room looked like it would be a formidable opponent if matters ever came down to a head-on fight between it and any of them.

The figure's main body was a disturbing amalgamation of man, demon, and machine; its right eye and most of the upper right side of its head was that of a human male, but the rest of his head was a demonic-looking green; his left cheek even had a large metal plate on it. Similar plates adorned the left side of his chest, and he had a large device that resembled a gun on his right arm, while the rest of his body resembled something that had been thrown together by Doctor Frankenstein; a deranged, random mix of human, demon and machinery. The only clothing the creature wore was a pair of grey combat trousers, revealing the full details of the 'surgery' it had been subjected to clear to all who looked at it.

It was asleep (Or maybe 'deactivated' was the proper term, given that it was partly a machine) at the moment, but even unconscious, the evil surrounding the creature alone could almost be tasted in the air. Why the Initiative hadn't destroyed it the second they created it (Which they must have done; no demon would have the resources to do something like this) Angel couldn't guess; maybe they'd just grown accustomed to ignoring their common sense.

No matter how horrific this creature was, it was the figure standing behind the table, arms outstretched as blue lightning crackled from his fingers around the body before him, that really made Angel, Doyle and Belthazor feel afraid.

It was the Source.

And if what he was doing to that thing would turn out to help the world, than Spike had just become a born-again Christian and was no longer swearing every second word.

"_STOP_!" Angel, Cole and Doyle roared, glaring at the Source as the three of them entered the room; Spike just stood at the back and, as always, fumed slightly as he waited for the chance to hit something.

Annoyingly enough, the Source did nothing to obey the 'order'; he just lookd casually at them as lightning continued to crackle around his fingertips and onto the body of the 'creature' lying in front of him.

"Oh, you're back," he said, as though they were all friends of his who'd just gone out to get a snack for watching the movie. "I thought you'd have the sense to stay away."

Angel laughed harshly. "What, just because you tried to kill us?" he asked, glaring angrily at the Source. "If I avoided _everyone _I encountered who wanted me dead, how would I ever finish you guys off?"

"Plus, in all fairness, you really didn't give us much of a reason to run for the hills last time," Doyle added, as Belthazor raised one hand to summon an energy ball, Spike already toying eagerly with his axe. "Just talked a bit about what you were doing here and then got thrown back when Cole intercepted your attack with our stolen gun. If you'd blown up the gun, I _might _have been intimidated…"

He shrugged. "As it is, I'm just seeing you as a hot air balloon's power source; you're all gas and no real action."

"Oh, really?" the Source retorted, glaring back at Doyle. "Well, maybe you have a point about me not being that intimidating- I _do _tend to avoid taking on opponents who lack the right _kind _of punch, so I might be a bit out of practice- but trust me; Adam is more than dangerous enough to make up for it."

"Who?" Spike interjected.

"This individual here," the Source explained, reaching down to affectionately ruffle the man/demon/cyborg's hair as though he were a small child. "I felt Adam worked as a name; after all, he _is _the first of a new species, much like the Adam of the Book of Genesis."

Still smiling, he looked back at the others, although there was no warmth in his gaze whatsoever. "And trust me; he's _more_ than capable of handling you four."

Raising one hand, the Source clicked his fingers, and vanished in a burst of white light just as Adam's eyes opened.

_Oh crap_… Angel thought, as the 'triborg' (For lack of a better term) sat up and glared over at the four of them.

They were in trouble now…

* * *

Glancing anxiously at her watch, Buffy finally nodded and glanced over at the four witches accompanying her. 

"It's time," she said, indicating the fraternity house before them- the one that, based on Angel's diagram and Doyle's information about his earlier entrance, seemed to hold the main entrance to the facility. "We're all ready?"

"Yep," Willow said, smiling brightly as the other three merely nodded; they may have the same amount of experience, but Willow was still some years younger than the others.

"Good," Buffy said, as she turned back to face the house. "Let's go."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Piper had stepped forward, flicking her hands at the door and blowing it off its hinges. As the five of them walked into the house, Buffy was glad to note that nobody seemed to be here; the Charmed Ones assured them that Leo could erase the memories of anyone they encountered, but she'd still rather not start mucking around with innocent peoples' minds.

"Willow?" Paige asked, glancing back at the young wicca.

"On it," Willow smiled, as she pulled out a small bag filled with various herbs. Opening it, she waved one hand over the bag, muttering a few Latin phrases under her breath, and then tipped the bag upside-down. Instantly, the ground herbs flew from the bag into the air, swirling around for a few moments before they finally dashed towards a nearby wall, spreading out to form a door outline for a few moments before they finally collapsed to the ground.

"That's it?" Piper asked, glancing over at Willow. She still wasn't entirely sure about letting another witch take charge of some of the spells. It wasn't that she was _arrogant _about it or anything, she just felt more than a bit uncomfortable in allowing anyone else to perform a spell for them…

But it had been decided that this was the quickest way; Willow's 'branch' of magic didn't need to speak to cast a spell, and Phoebe hadn't really had the time to come up with an effective spell before the attack anyway.

_Besides_, Piper thought, as Willow nodded at her and she raised her hands to strike, _I can't argue with the results, can I_?

As she flicked her hands, destroying the door to reveal a staircase leading down to an elaborate white room, filled with soldiers and scientists who were looking in shock at the sudden destruction of the entrance, she smiled.

She wouldn't actually be killing any of them, but after what they'd done, for no reason other than that their subjects were 'different', this was _still _going to be good…

As soon as the soldiers had pulled out their guns, Piper had raised her hands, ready to act. As the guns fired, Piper stepped up to the front, Phoebe, Buffy and Willow hiding behind the door while Paige stood beside her, and rapidly flicked her hands at the approaching bullets, freezing them in mid-air. Her wrists quickly got sore from all the flicking, but Piper kept on freezing and freezing until their opponents finally stopped firing.

"Bullets!" Paige yelled, holding out her hand and calling all the bullets over to her, where they collapsed to the floor in a heap of glinting metal, useless.

Before anyone could reload, Buffy had leapt over the edge of the staircase, spinning rapidly as she fell before finally landing on her feet, glaring up at the shocked soldiers. As Buffy charged into the mass of soldiers, punching and kicking, often knocking them out with a single punch- evidently they relied mainly on stealth when attacking demons- Phoebe leapt into the air, spinning around as she dived towards the soldiers in a manner that almost resembled Superman, punching two of them directly on the chin before kicking a third in the side of the head. Up on the landing, Paige grabbed Piper and Willow's hands and orbed them down to the floor, before the three of them launched into action themselves, albeit less efficiently than Phoebe and Buffy.

With the advantage of surprise on their side, coupled with Piper and Paige having single-handedly stopped the soldiers' bullets with minimal actual effort, the soldiers were quickly eliminated; in a matter of moments, the only people still conscious in the main entrance of the Initiative were either witches or a Slayer.

Glancing around, Buffy smiled at her friends before looking at the nearest soldiers.

"And _that's _kickin' your ass!" she said, grinning widely.

"Indeed," a voice said from off to one side. "Now, it's my turn."

Spinning around, Buffy, Willow, Paige, Piper and Phoebe saw themselves staring at the face of a man that none of them could immediately recognise, but all instinctively knew.

It was the Source.

_Oh crap_, Piper thought to herself. _I thought we'd have more _time _than this before _he _showed up…_

As it was, all they had to rely on were a bunch of crystals in Phoebe's pocket and a spell the three of them had come up with in the last couple of hours.

If that didn't work…

Well, she'd rather not think about what would happen then, to be honest; the risks were just too great.


	16. Clash of the Titans

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

AN: Sorry this took so long to get up; I had a bad case of writer's block for a significant amount of time, and then the document caught a virus, resulting in me losing everything I'd done on it so far and forcing me to start all over again. Anyway, I hope it was worth the wait in the end; we've only got a few more chapters before the story's all over, and they are going to have some _significant _action scenes, let me tell you

What Makes a Monster?

After the Source had vanished from the room, and the thing he referred to as 'Adam' had stood up, Angel had only a few seconds to run over his possible attack plan to try and stop this new factor before their new foe was ready to attack.

On the one hand, he, Spike, Doyle and Belthazor could charge at this guy in a desperate, all-or-nothing attack, and hope that a surprise offensive of four against one- regardless of how powerful the one might appear to be at the moment- would be enough to get past his defences and actually do some _damage _to the sucker.

On the other hand, they could just leave him here, have Belthazor take them back to the others, get out of this base and close off all the entrances they could find, leaving this thing sealed away until they could figure out an effective means of killing it.

Unfortunately, much as he would have almost preferred to use the second option, it wasn't possible; they had no way of knowing whether this 'Adam' thing in front of them wouldn't be able to just break out of the base no matter _what _they did to the entrances. Besides, even if they blocked up every doorway down here that they could find, there'd always be the possibility of them having missed something that could allow this guy to get out without them even _knowing _he was gone.

They couldn't afford to take that kind of risk; if this guy was half as powerful as he looked, he'd be bad news, and Angel was prepared to bet that he was, if anything, _more _powerful than he seemed.

That left them all with only one option right now.

"_Get him_!" he yelled at his friends. Instantly, Angel, Spike and Doyle charged forward, Belthazor hanging back slightly to charge an energy ball; the former assassin may have some degree of superhuman strength, but his main power in combat lay in his energy balls rather than hand-to-hand.

As he leapt towards Adam, Angel was already privately wishing he'd actually brought a weapon of some kind to this fight rather than declining the option. True, it was hard to know exactly _what _kind of weapon he could have brought that would be able to do damage to something that seemed to be mostly mechanical, but he could have at least maybe severed some wires or something…

Then, just as he and the others had reached a position where they could actually _hit _Adam, the demon lashed out with a sweeping blow from his mechanical arm that sent all three of them flying backwards at a rapid rate.

_Ouch_… Angel winced as he struck the wall behind him, only vaguely registering that Belthazor was at least still standing; his mind was currently overwhelmed by the sudden pain he felt in one arm. He was reasonably sure his enhanced healing would have it attended to in a few minutes- he'd had broken bones before since becoming a vampire, and they always healed at a relatively rapid rate- but he was still going to be out of action for the next few minutes.

_No two ways about it_, Angel thought to himself, as he glanced up at where Adam was still standing, an arrogant smile on his face as he studied the two vampires and two half-breeds that faced him, _if I don't get back up and at him soon, or the others can't hold him off long enough for me to heal, _this _is going to suck_…

* * *

As soon as Buffy saw the figure standing in the middle of the room, and took in the Charmed Ones' reactions to him, she knew that this guy could only be the 'Source of All Evil' that the Halliwell sisters had told them about after hearing about Angel, Cole and Doyle's encounter with him during their escape from the Initiative.

In which case, if she recalled all the details about what the Halliwells had told them about their regular, large-scale allies, the guy was basically large, powerful, evil, and dangerous.

In other words, he was prime Slayage material as far as she was concerned; the fact that he wasn't something she'd _normally _be dealing with was a secondary concern if it was anything to _be _concerned about.

Buffy didn't hesitate; right now, the Halliwells and Willow were still up on the staircase leading down into the main room of the Initiative, and were just _slightly _too far away for them to _instantly _strike back at the Source.

She was nearest to the bad guy right now; as far as she was concerned, that meant that it was up to _her_ to launch the first attack against him.

Charging forward, Buffy's eyes barely registered the Source raise his hands to generate what liked like what Angel had described as an 'energy ball'; Cole had apparently used them as long-range weapons to great extent during the initial fight between the two demonic warriors, before they'd realised that they were on the same side.

However, even if she didn't fully register it with her _eyes_, her _other_, 'Slayer'-senses were perfectly well-aware of it. As soon as the Source was in a position to launch the ball at her, Buffy had briefly vaulted off to the side, out of the path of the energy ball, and then launched herself towards the guy once more, fist outstretched to strike him in the side of the head…

Only for her to suddenly be hit by what seemed to be an electric 'shock' of some kind, sending her flying back through the air. For a moment, she thought she was going to hit the wall, but then she felt something…

_Grab_ her?

"Sorry if this is a bit uncomfortable," a voice said from behind her. "I don't normally do this in a fight- we tend to stay grounded and in smaller locations- but I figured it was worth a shot, particularly since the alternative was to risk you getting a broken _neck_."

"Phoebe?" Buffy said, glancing behind her in surprise, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of the middle Halliwell sister literally _flying _through the air, her hands holding Buffy's arms as they landed beside the others.

"Yeah, I know; cool little extra power, isn't it?" Piper said, smiling slightly at the Slayer as she indicated Phoebe, before turning back to look at the Source, who was presently just standing in the middle of the room and looking at them with an almost casual attitude; it was almost as though he didn't even consider them an actual _threat_. Buffy was about to suggest that Paige, Willow and Phoebe use the weapons they'd brought for the current fight, but

"Of course," the eldest Halliwell added, glaring at the Source, "as far as offensive powers go, my one _definitely _tops it."

With that said, Piper casually flicked her hands at the magic-based demon standing in front of them, in the manner that Buffy recognised as being how Piper activated her 'explosion' powers.

Nothing actually _happened_- at least, the 'Source' was still standing after the attack rather than ending up dead or in multiple pieces- but he was sent staggering back a few feet from a small 'explosion' that seemed to strike him in the chest. Before their opponent could regain his balance, Piper had flicked her hands at him again, repeating the previous instance, before following it up with another attack, and another, and another…

Unfortunately, it was the last attack that nearly caused a serious problem for the united forces of the Charmed Ones and their allies as the Source finally took the opportunity to strike back at his adversaries.

Somehow- even looking back, Buffy was never entirely sure _how _it had happened- the Source managed to regain his balance just a _bit _faster than before after Piper's last attack. Maybe his powers allowed him to adapt to attacks that were used against him too often, or maybe he'd just been attempting to lull the witch into a false sense of security…

Either way, when Piper launched her next attack, the Source rapidly raised his hands, almost seemed to _catch _some kind of energy in his hands- the energy in question suddenly took on an appearance that resembled the energy ball he'd tried to throw at Buffy earlier, before he launched it back at the caster.

Instantly, Willow- the nearest to the eldest Halliwell- dived towards Piper, knocking the older witch out of harm's way as the ball crashed into the stairs behind them. The united forces of the Charmed Ones, Buffy and Willow may all be active, but it still failed to change the fact that the initial attack strategy against the Source didn't seem to have worked out.

"So much for _that _plan!" Paige commented, exchanging rueful glances with Phoebe before looking anxiously over at Buffy; the Source was currently dazed from the attack, but she doubted it would last long. "You're the Vampire Slayer here; got anyideas of your _own_ for weakening this guy?"

"Maybe…" Buffy commented, as she took in their surroundings in a rapid attempt to come up with something that could use their environment to their advantage.

It only took a few moments for her to realise that the perfect weapon for that purpose was practically under her nose.

Or rather, the perfect weapon_s_ were right under _their_ noses.

Specifically, the guns that the Initiative soldiers had been holding when they'd all been knocked out by her initial entrance to the facility; it wasn't an absolutely foolproof attack strategy, but it would give them better odds than they had at the moment.

"_Get us some guns_!" she yelled over at Paige, as she turned back to face the Source, diving forward even as she dodged another energy ball aimed in her direction. It would appear that the Source had decided to try and eliminate/test/whatever the only unknown element in this fight, given that he was currently only focused on her and nearly ignoring the Halliwells and Willow; after all, he knew that the other four were witches, but he probably wasn't sure what _Buffy _was.

"Right!" Paige yelled from behind Buffy, as the Slayer rolled forward to land beside the Source, fists clenched as she leapt back onto her feet while simultaneously delivering a powerful uppercut to her opponent. "_Guns_!"

Instantly, five of the guns that were lying on the ground turned into brilliant white light and 'flew' into the hands of the Source's current opponents. As soon as the guns were in their hands, the five women aimed their weapons at the Source.

"You want a fight?" Phoebe asked, chuckling slightly as the Source's eyes widened in shock at the sight before them. "You've _got _one!"

Instantly, the five of them aimed their weapons at the Source, pressed down on the trigger, and instantly launched a mass of bullets of their foe. Instantly, the Source was sent staggering backwards, his entire body shuddering as the bullets struck him, sending him reeling as he was persistently struck by his adversaries' weapons. He didn't seem to have sustained much in the way of actual injuries yet, but he was nevertheless clearly not going to be at full strength when the current assault was over.

"KEEP IT UP!" Piper yelled over at her sisters. "WE'VE GOT HIM ON THE ROPES!"

"_PROFESSOR DELGADO_?" a voice yelled from off to the side.

Despite her current focus on taking out the Source, Buffy couldn't help but notice that voice; the fine details eluded her at the moment- gunfire tended to make things harder to hear- but it was definitely an older woman, maybe in her fifties, who, given that her apparent age made the role of active soldier impractical, was most likely in charge of this organisation.

In other words, it sounded like they were just about to end up with a whole new set of problems on their plate.

* * *

As soon as his allies had hit the wall behind him, Belthazor took the opportunity he'd been handed. With Adam's attention momentarily distracted by surveying the damage he'd just caused, he seemed not to notice as Belthazor raised his hand, summoning an energy ball into existence. As the ball crackled in his hand, he hurled it towards the 'triborg', his eyes narrowing as he launched the ball at his target…

Only for Adam to casually raise his mechanical hand and catch the energy ball before it struck him, as though it were only a cricket ball.

_Oh, _shit_… _Belthazor reflected to himself, as Adam casually studied the energy ball in his hands as though it was just some oddity he'd found lying around somewhere.

Evidently, whatever the Source had been doing to Adam when he'd been 'dousing' him with that blue lightning when they came into the room, it hadn't just been waking Adam up to deal with the current situation in Sunnydale; it must have also given Adam access to some basic magical powers. Probably not enough for him to cast actual spells on his own- Belthazor doubted the Source would create a warrior that was so powerful it might even be capable of destroying _him_- but it was clear that his energy balls wouldn't be as effective against Adam as he'd hoped…

"Nice try," Adam's voice said, breaking Belthazor's train of thought as he looked back up at the Source's former assassin. "Now, let _me _show you how it's done."

With that, Adam raised the hand containing the energy ball and hurled it in Belthazor's direction. The red-skinned demon instinctively shimmered off to the side, leaving the ball to strike the wall behind where he'd been standing mere seconds ago, before shimmering once more to appear directly beside Adam, launching a punch at the flesh side of the creature's head…

Only for Adam to catch Belthazor's wrist in his mechanical arm before the other demon had even struck home.

Turning to glare at Belthazor, Adam grinned slightly at his foe.

"Not a bad try," he said dismissively, as though he was just a teacher complimenting a pupil for attempting a difficult problem. "It just wasn't good enough."

"Is _this_?" a voice yelled from off to the side. Adam and Belthazor barely had time to realise who'd spoken before Spike had lunged forward, his vampiric features fixed in a roar of outrage as he brought his axe down towards the triborg's mechanical arm, the blade digging into the metallic wrist with incredible force…

Only for Spike to suddenly be thrown back, electricity tearing through his body as it crackled along the metal handle of the axe from where the blade had dug into the cables of Adam's arm.

Fortunately, the shock of the impact was enough to make him release Belthazor, resulting in the demonic ex-assassin escaping the vampire's fate, but Spike was still clearly not in any specific shape to get back up and continue fighting at the immediate moment.

* * *

As soon as Piper heard the voice yell off to their side, she didn't hesitate; even if she wanted to kill the Source more than she'd wanted almost anything else for as long as she could remember, if there was somebody else here, they had to stop firing the guns to explain themselves. Evidently, her sisters and allies- it was still too early to consider Buffy and Willow friends- agreed with her; it only took seconds for the sound of gunfire to cease, leaving all five of them free to look and see who'd just arrived.

Whatever Piper had been expecting to see in a top-secret military base dedicated to the study of demons like they were all automatically against humanity just because they _weren't _human (OK, so the only 'good' demons she'd met so far were Cole, Doyle and Angel; that still didn't mean those three were the _extent _of the demon population who _didn't _want to devour and maim everyone else on the planet), she hadn't been expecting to see an older woman, in approximately her fifties, with short greying hair, dressed in a white lab coat over a purple jumper and dark trousers, staring at them with cold hatred.

"How the _hell _did you all get _in _here?" she yelled; she carefully, and deliberately, Piper noted, _didn't _come any closer to them, apparently afraid of what they might be capable of if pushed to fight. "And what _are_…"

Much to Piper's surprise, the woman's voice trailed off as her eyes fell on Buffy and Willow, both of whom were staring at the woman with an equally incredulous gaze on their faces.

"Professor Walsh?" Willow said at last, her eyes wide in surprise as she looked at the woman. "You_ run _this place?"

"Miss Rosenberg?" 'Walsh'- as this woman's name appeared to be- said, looking incredulously at the red-headed witch, before her gaze flicked to Buffy and she rolled her eyes slightly. "And Miss Summers…"

She rolled her eyes and sighed slightly, shaking her head in a self-criticising manner. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see that _you _were never exactly normal; you _never _liked me from the beginning…"

"Uh… actually, I didn't know anything _about _this place," Buffy said, glaring at Walsh with an expression that Piper wasn't surprised to see combined confusion with hostility; she clearly didn't like this woman, but at the same time had no idea what she was doing here. "I never liked you because I thought you were a bitch, _not _because I thought you were-"

"Oh, and you just got here by some _fluke_?" Walsh yelled, indicating the facility around her as she continued to glare in the direction of the new arrivals. "What is it; you can't take the fact that you're no longer the top of the pecking order and want to eliminate the people who can actually _stop _you?"

"Y'know, if it wasn't for the fact that we're _kind _of trying to destroy this place anyway- if not for the reasons you _think_ we are- I'd be accusing of you of being a raving paranoid," Phoebe said, glaring critically at 'Walsh'. "I mean, you're not making _that _big a splash in the grand scheme of things; from what we've got, you've captured a bunch of vampires and some assorted minor demons, and that's about it."

"_Exactly_!" Willow said, looking triumphantly at Walsh. "You're suffering from a Narcissus complex; you're so fixated on your _own _importance you're just pretty much incapable of registering that you're _not _as important as you seem to have _convinced _yourself you are!"

For a moment, Willow just glared at the woman before her, than she turned to look at her friend and allies (It was still too early for her to automatically think of the Charmed Ones as _friends_) and shrugged apologetically. "Sorry if that's not accurate; I tried to pay attention in Psych class, but given that _she _was teaching it and she's barking mad _herself _she _may_ have got some stuff wrong…"

"I AM _NOT _INSANE, _DEMON_!" Walsh yelled at Willow.

"Excuse me?" Phoebe said, looking intently at Walsh, hoping that the others were doing what they'd arranged and getting anyone else in this facility out of here while they kept the main soldiers occupied here. "You're just automatically assuming we're demons because we attacked you? Does it ever occur to you that maybe we're the _good _guys who object to you treating a bunch of people like they don't matter just because they're not totally _human_?"

"Oh, and you attacked Professor Delgado because we're on the _same side_?" Walsh yelled, indicating the body of the man the Charmed Ones knew better as the Source. "Tell me, do you honestly think all humans are as _stupid_ as-"

Before Walsh could continue, she was suddenly interrupted by the man she insisted of thinking of as only 'Professor Delgado' rapidly standing up and waving his hand. Before any of the Charmed/Scooby team could react, their guns had all flown out of their hands, disintegrating as they flew, and Walsh was being held up in the air by the Source, who was grinning casually at them, his earlier wounds now healed.

"Nice try," he said simply. "Too bad it didn't work out."

"Let her go," Buffy said, indicating Walsh. "She may be a bitch, but you don't get to just kill people on _my _watch."

_Watch_, Phoebe thought to herself, anxiously risking a glance at her own one. If things had gone according to plan, she and the others should have been further into the Initiative at this point, leaving Leo, Anya, Xander, Giles and Cordelia to follow them and use the discarded weapons to defend themselves against any opponents. While they were definitely going to be requiring back-up if this 'stand-off' continued, Phoebe also hoped that their friends would be sensible enough not to enter the room in the current situation; from what she'd learned of their new allies, none of the others had any natural abilities they could use to defend themselves in this kind of situation, and it wouldn't do them any good to give the Source access to a hostage who they actually _cared _about.

In other words, until further notice, they had a stand-off.

* * *

As soon as Spike had been sent flying back by the electrical explosion, Doyle seized his own chance for attack. With Adam momentarily distracted after Spike's blow to his arm, the half-Brachen demon leapt forward as fast as he could, punching the human side of Adam's face before following it up with a rapid head-butt…

As soon as his forehead struck the monstrosity of man and flesh standing before him, Doyle knew he'd made a mistake; stars suddenly burst up in front of his vision, and he staggered backwards, desperately blinking to regain his composure as he shifted back into human form from the daze of the blow.

_Idiot_! he thought to himself, as he clutched at his aching forehead and cheeks; when he'd head-butted Adam, he'd been so focused on 'proving' himself to his allies that he'd forgotten about the metal plate on Adam's face, and he'd practically struck it directly with his last attack. _What the _Hell _were ya thinking; that man's head was _obviously _going to be-_

_Wait a minute_… he thought, as his ears, momentarily incapacitated from the pain (Or, rather, his _brain _had been in so much pain that it had been briefly unable to _process _what the ears were hearing), suddenly started working again. _What's that noise_?

In a matter of moments, his pain-dazed brain recognised it.

It was Adam.

He was screaming.

As soon as Doyle's head had stopped aching enough for him to feel safe in relaxing his grip, he glanced up and saw _exactly _what had happened. When he'd hit Adam, although the actual blow had done more damage to _himself_ than it had done to _Adam_, a few of the spines on his face had managed to lodge themselves in the soft flesh around Adam's eyes from the force of Doyle's initial attack. None of the wounds were particularly serious- Adam's eyes still appeared intact, and the bleeding was already beginning to stop- but it was definitely keeping him out of action for the moment.

* * *

AN 2: Regarding Doyle's spines getting stuck in Adam's face, it _is _possible; in the Buffy/Angel crossover novel _Monster Island_ Doyle's Brachen father Axtius had the anxious habit of occasionally pulling the spines out of his face, although it causes him some slight pain and is a habit he was trying to break himself of

* * *

Right now, that was all Doyle needed.

"Take _that_!" he yelled, leaping desperately for the demented triborg before him, lashing out with a desperate punch for the human side of Adam's head. As soon as the fist struck its target, Adam was sent staggering backwards (Admittedly more from the surprise of the attack rather than the actual force; Doyle freely acknowledged that he was hardly a strong fighter even in his demon form), before the powerful triborg found Angel standing to one side of him, now recovered from Adam's initial attack.

_Spike may still be down_, Doyle noted as he glanced over at the other vampire, _but Angel?_

_He's as ready as ever_.

* * *

"Hi there," Angel said grimly, staring harshly at his opponent tried to turn around to attack the vampire. "It's payback time."

With the pain from the recent injuries in his eyes making Adam that fraction of a second too slow to attack, Angel seized his chance to attack, lashing out at the man/demon/machine with both fists simultaneously, striking Adam in the ribs with immense force.

Angel had managed to break through stone walls with similar punches in his past.

Using one fist, he had managed to leave most vampires staggering with shock from the power of his punches after hitting them in the chest like he'd just hit Adam.

Used against his current opponent, Angel only sent the triborg crashing into the back wall. The creature was clearly dazed by the attack, true, but that aside he still seemed fine. Even that crack Spike had made on his arm earlier already seemed to be 'healing up'- regardless of the fact that it should have been impossible for _metal _to 'heal' itself.

Looking up at Adam's face, Angel was frustrated to note that his foe had even recovered from the recent damage Doyle had caused to his eyes; their advantage of Adam being blinded had gone almost as soon as it had come, and Angel doubted that they'd get another chance to strike back at him like _that_.

"You know, you really are _pathetic_," Adam growled, raising his flesh hand as he glared at the vampire. Before Angel could move, Adam had lashed out with a powerful punch, sending Angel staggering backwards and…

Found himself _pinned _to the _wall_?

_Oh crap_… Angel thought, as he glanced down at where Adam's first had struck his shoulder.

Sticking out from the arm, penetrating _right through_ Angel's shoulder, was a three-foot-long spike made entirely of what looked like bone.

Then the pain hit him, and Angel had to clench his jaw together to stop himself from screaming in agony.

_God_, that _hurt_!

"A valiant attempt, but an unimpressive one," Adam said, glaring at Angel as he lashed out with his other hand, striking Doyle and Belthazor as they attempted to charge him once again. "Let me make this clear to you and your allies, _vampire_; you _cannot _defeat me."

"Really…?" Angel growled, wincing slightly as he felt the sharp bone in his shoulder digging through his muscles; if he didn't get that out soon, he might risk long-term muscle damage.

"Let me make this clear to you, Angelus; you _cannot _defeat me," Adam growled, staring pointedly at the vampire in front of him. "I am empowered by the greatest energy sources in both magic and science; the magical power provided by the Source itself, combined with a plutonium power pack that shall never run down. I am unstoppable."

"Funny thing… about unstoppable…" Angel grunted weakly as he glared at Adam, reaching up to grab the bone spike that was still lodged in his shoulder. "Just 'cause you can't _stop _it… doesn't mean… you can't… _match _it!"

As soon as the word 'much' had crossed his lips, Angel had grabbed the bone spear in his shoulder, and, exerting all his strength, broke it cleanly in half. As he fell to the ground, leaving Adam roaring in shock and pain from the broken 'bone', Angel thrust out with the bone spear, sticking it directly into the side of Adam's neck.

As Adam stumbled backwards, screaming in agony, Angel glanced over at his allies, and was relieved to see that all three of them were back on their feet; Spike was clutching his head and wincing somewhat, and Angel wondered if the electric shock had done something to the chip, but otherwise they all seemed to be fine.

_Good_, Angel thought grimly to himself as he glanced back at Adam, who was already attempting to pull out the bone spike Angel had lodged into his neck. The wound looked serious, but Angel knew that, as soon as the spike was out of Adam's body, the wound would begin to heal at such a rapid rate that Angel knew would prevent anybody from actually doing any effective damage to Adam in a simple fist-fight…

But what Adam had said had made Angel think.

Adam had clearly demonstrated that he could deal with any _physical _offences they had to offer…

But what about his abilities in a fight against _magic_?

If the thing had been capable of using any spells or magical powers, he'd probably have done so already; his 'magic' appeared to be limited to just the accelerated healing and that thing he'd done when he caught Cole's initial energy ball.

With that in mind, Angel had _another _idea he wanted to try.

"Cole," he said, glancing over at his new friend and jerking a thumb at Adam, "think you can 'shimmer' us over to the Charmed Ones?"

Belthazor didn't even need to ask what Angel meant.

"Hold on tight," he said, holding out his left arm. "I've never tried to take more than one person with me before; you'll need to keep a tight grip if this is going to work."

Nodding, Angel reached over to take a tight grip of Belthazor's shoulder, Doyle and (After some quick prompting) Spike grabbing onto the red-skinned assassin's arm. Instantly, Belthazor dashed forward as fast as he could, grabbing onto Adam just as the triborg had pulled the bone spike out of his neck, focused…


	17. Battle Lines Converge

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

Then, after a brief whirl of air as everything seemed to turn grey for a moment, the four demonic warriors found themselves standing in a large room, Buffy, Willow, and the three Halliwells standing in the centre, facing a man in a dark suit who was effortlessly holding up a woman apparently in her fifties, dressed in a white lab coat.

For a moment, Angel's eyes narrowed as he glared at her; if that woman wasn't the person who'd 'talked' to him and Cole after their initial fight (If you could call it 'talking' when all she'd been doing was insult them and act like they weren't even close to human), he'd be _very _surprised…

But, given that she was currently at threat from an individual who he now recognised as the Source, Angel was prepared to put that aside and focus on the more immediate matter of survival.

He didn't even need to speak; as soon as his allies had realised what was happening, he, Doyle and Spike had dived off to the side, out of the path of any potential attack on the part of the Source, just as Belthazor had shimmered away from Adam to stand right beside the Source. Before the master demon could retaliate, Cole struck the Source's arm with sufficient force to make his former master release the scientist, grabbed Walsh as she fell, and shimmered away once more, evidently taking the scientist to safety for the moment.

With the only 'civilian' in the building out of the way- as much of a pain as Walsh might have been, she was still human, and deserved another chance to matter how big a mistake she'd made this time around- the united forces of the Scooby Gang, the Charmed Ones, and Angel Investigations, were now free to act and attack their opponents.

"_Get them_!" Angel, Buffy and Piper yelled simultaneously; Angel, for one, knew that Cole would be back once he'd deposited Walsh somewhere 'safe', but he didn't have the time to wait for his new friend to return. As Angel watched, Willow, Phoebe, Buffy, Doyle and Belthazor- having returned from wherever he'd shimmered Walsh away to- charged for the Source, lashing out with their fists and weapons before even the self-proclaimed 'Source of Evil' could have time to react.

For all the Source's power, even _he _couldn't fight off a gathering like that any time soon, so, for the moment, he was out of the fight.

Of course, with half their attack force currently occupied, that only left Angel with Piper, Spike and Paige to face Adam, and he wasn't entirely sure if the chip in Spike's head would actually let him hit something that was only _partly _human.

Even if Angel and Spike's raw strength, coupled with the Halliwells' own natural powers, meant that it was far from _impossible_ that they could pull it off, this was _definitely _going to be a difficult struggle…

* * *

Not for the first time as he sat on the ground, cards in his hands and his weapon off to one side as he studied his friends and allies, Xander had to wonder how the hell he'd come to this; sitting outside a top-secret demon research military facility, surrounded by an ex-demon, his ex-girlfriend, his _current _girlfriend- fortunately neither of them had spent much time talking to each other so far-, his old librarian, and the ghost/angel/whatever of a World War Two combat medic, playing cards and waiting for the time when they could move in. After they'd taken up their positions to wait for the moment when they could enter the Initiative and deal with any soldiers remaining in the facility, Cordelia, shallow as ever, had stated that there was no way she was standing around doing nothing until it was time for them to move in, and Anya had suggested a quick game of cards to keep themselves occupied; Leo had set an alarm on his watch to let them know when it was time for them to enter the base.

"Got any fours?" Anya asked, looking inquiringly over at Cordelia as she finished studying the cards in her hand.

"Nah, go fish," Cordelia replied, shrugging dismissively at Anya's query.

"Do you have any tens?" Leo asked, looking over at the former cheerleader himself. Cordelia had just opened her mouth to reply when there was a brief shimmering in the air off to the side, and the 'reserve' team found themselves staring in shock and confusion as Belthazor handed an unconscious body- a woman in her mid to late fifties, apparently- over to Leo, a grim expression on her face.

"The Source is down there," the red-skinned demon explained briefly, nodding grimly at the shocked expression on Leo's face. "He was using her as a hostage, but the other soldiers down there should be OK; the others are probably keeping him so occupied he can't even _try _to reach any of them."

"Wait a minute; the _Source _is _fighting _you guys down there?" Xander asked, looking incredulously at Belthazor as he put his cards down and reached over to pick up his sword. "You guys need any back-up; we can be there in-"

"No," Belthazor stated grimly as he looked over at the young man. "The rest of us will do what we can to wear him down; your job is to make sure _nobody _else goes down there while we're fighting. Give us a few minutes, and then, if you haven't heard anything from us…"

He shrugged slightly, his eyes narrowed as he looked over at Leo and Giles. "It'll all be up to you then."

As the two men nodded briefly in understanding, Belthazor smiled slightly back at them- Xander wished he wouldn't do that; long experience with vampires had left Xander convinced that demons only smiled at you when they were about to break your neck- and then 'shimmered' away, leaving the five members of the reserve team standing in the ground, looking anxiously around at each other.

Finally, Giles broke the silence as he looked over at Leo.

"What would you recommend?" he asked the Whitelighter. "Waiting outside the house to stop anybody going inside in the first place, or waiting inside to knock anybody out as they try to get in?"

"Inside," Leo stated simply. "It's more straightforward; we don't have to worry too much about explanations."

"Exactly!" Cordelia agreed, smiling over at the Whitelighter as she tucked her cards into her back pocket and picked up her dagger, the others also gathering their weapons as they prepared to move. "I mean, if nothing else, we're going to blow the place up anyway; what does it matter if a few people have headaches in the morning?"

Somehow, Xander doubted that it would be _that _simple to deal with anybody who tried to enter Lowell House before the Initiative base was destroyed.

He didn't mention to anyone else, though; if nothing else, he didn't want to jinx their current 'mission' by _saying _it was going to be difficult and thus encouraging the universe to _make _it harder.

* * *

Rolling his eyes as he stared at the door before him, Graham raised his hand and knocked once more on the door before him, glancing impatiently over at Forrest.

"You're _sure _this guy knows Buffy?" he asked his colleague, jerking his thumb at the door before him. "I mean, why would she keep in touch with her high school _librarian _of all people?"

"I don't know, and, right now, I don't particularly care," Forrest replied, as he looked back at Graham with a focused expression on his face. "What matters is that, if what that… _thing_ said about Buffy is even remotely true, now that he's out, Riley probably figured that he'd come after her once more and went to warn her; it's the only thing that explains why he's been out of touch for the last few hours."

Nothing Graham's slightly sceptical expression, Forrest shrugged. "Dumb thing to do, I know, but in all fairness, when has Riley ever been the _sharpest _tool in the box?"

Despite the fact that he had long regarded Riley as a friend, Graham couldn't argue with that; the man was a good fighter, a good tactician, and an all-around decent guy to have on your side in a tight spot, but he could be more than _slightly _impulsive at the worst possible moments.

"Yeah, fair enough…" he admitted, nodding slightly before his voice trailed off as he tilted his head to one side. "Hey… do you hear something?"

Pausing, Forrest copied his friend and listened carefully.

Now that Graham mentioned it, there _was _some kind of sound coming from the room in front of them; it sounded like somebody was… trying to get _out _of something…

Exchanging a brief glance with his friend, Forrest didn't even need to ask for confirmation; they were going in, and that was the end of the matter. Both checking their holsters under their jackets- they always took care to carry at least a pistol and a taser around the campus, in case something came up- the two of them stepped back and launched two powerful kicks at the door in front of them.

Admittedly, if it turned out that the librarian was just into some 'kinky' stuff, they were going to end up monumentally embarrassed at what had just taken place, but, on the other hand, given that those yells definitely _sounded _like someone who was being held against their will, it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to provide a decent explanation for their actions.

As soon as they'd entered the room, it didn't take long for them to identify where the voice was coming from; judging by the way that a door to a closet was shaking, it seemed pretty clear that the voice was coming from there.

"Hold on!" Forrest yelled, as he and Graham took up position in front of the door. "Just get back; we'll have you out of here in a sec!"

As the voice stopped, Forrest and Graham waited a second or so to ensure the man on the other side had time to move out of harm's way, and then lashed out with two more powerful kicks, a grim smile on their faces as the door opened once more.

Then they saw who'd actually been standing on the other side, and their jaws dropped in surprise.

"_Riley_?" Graham said, staring incredulously at his fuming friend; he'd never heard Riley really _yelling _before now, so he'd been unable to immediately identify the voice when he heard it. "What the _hell_-?"

"_Demons_, that's what happened!" Riley yelled as he walked out of the closet, glaring at his friends. "I came here to try and warn Buffy, only to find her and her friends sitting around with Angelus as though he hadn't even _done _anything to her! When I tried to remind them what he'd done, she just _hit _me and then… well, I must have been knocked out, because the _next _thing I remember is waking up in there!"

"Sorry, can we back up a bit?" Forrest asked, looking in confusion at his friend. "Are you telling us that Buffy doesn't seem to _care _that Angelus raped her?"

"Look, she needs _help _in _every _sense of the word; why are we wasting time _talking _about this?" Riley retorted, glaring at his friends. "We need to get back to the Initiative and figure out our next move before she goes and does something _really _foolish!"

As the two men exchanged glanced, neither Forrest or Graham were surprised to see that the same expression was on their face; general frustration with Riley's sudden resolution to try and help somebody despite the fact that she'd probably end up needing to be saved from _herself _as well, but still resigned to try and keep their friend from making a serious mistake.

"Well," Forrest sighed, as he looked back at Riley, "we'd better get going if we're going to find Angelus before the situation gets awkward."

As Riley gave them a brief, grateful smile before he headed towards the door, Forrest could only hope that his friend's actions wouldn't result in them making the most serious mistake of their lives.

Personally, as far as he was concerned, if Buffy _was _repressing the trauma of Angelus raping her, it might be better for them to just try and capture her rather than kill the man she _thought _she 'loved' in front of her…

Right now, though, his main priority was to keep up with Riley to make sure he didn't make any foolish mistakes; he'd worry about the other details when he got there.

* * *

Fortunately for Angel and his group, Piper seemed to instantly guess why the four demons had 'brought' Adam here; as soon as their initial battle cry had finished and each person, Piper had turned to face Adam and flicked her hands at him.

Glancing back at the triborg after taking a quick assessment of the Source- Doyle and Phoebe had each managed to land a decent punch to the guy's face, so it looked like they'd be able to deal with their own adversary-, Angel allowed himself a small grin as he saw Adam's mechanical arm explode around the forearm as he raised it in an apparent attempt to 'block' Piper's attack. The arm itself remained intact, but judging by the sudden limpness of Adam's hand, the process by which signals were transferred from Adam's brain to the arm were no longer effectively transmitting to the mechanical limb.

Almost before his mind had consciously processed what had just taken place, Angel instinctively began to move to attack Adam, but Spike, once again holding his axe, struck first; his fangs bared, he lunged forward, bringing his axe rapidly down towards Adam's damaged arm, releasing it in the split second between him aiming the blow and actually making contact with the triborg (Clearly, Angel noted, Spike was trying to avoid a repeat of his earlier electric shock). The axe failed to totally cut the arm away from the rest of Adam, but it nevertheless managed to create a significant crack in the metal 'armour' that Angel's allies almost instantly moved to take advantage of; Adam barely had time to look down at the crack when Paige held out her hands, aimed them at the cracked machinery, and yelled out "_Arm_!"

Even as Angel watched, the portion of the arm between the crack and Adam's hand vanished in a swirl of white lights, to reappear almost instantly in Paige's hands.

Despite his long experience of the magical world- ranging from everything from demons to his own curse- Angel couldn't help but be impressed at _that _little demonstration of what the three sisters could be capable of when they put their mind to it.

Regardless of his awe at what had just taken place, the vampire didn't hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity he'd been handed. While Adam was still staring in shock at the stump that had been an intact arm mere moments ago, the former Scourge of Europe grabbed the dagger that he'd noticed earlier in Paige's belt, aimed it, and threw it directly at Adam, striking the triborg in the area where he'd earlier impaled his foe with his own bone spike. The flesh was evidently still tender enough for Angel to do some damage to his opponent, the dagger penetrating his opponent's skin with relative ease, leaving Angel to lash out with a powerful kick that struck Adam directly on the nose.

"AARRGGHH!!" Adam screamed, staggering backwards as he clutched at his injured face, staring almost incredulously at the 'blood' (If it could be called that; it almost smelled _metallic _from where Angel was standing) that covered his remaining hand; clearly, no matter how efficiently he was able to use his technological limbs, he didn't register their loss as any kind of actual _pain_.

"Nice," Paige said, nodding approvingly at the vampire's use of her weapon before she turned her attention back to the arm in her hands, a critical smirk on her face as she studied it. "Now then, let's see what _this _thing can do…"

_

* * *

What am I doing? Willow asked herself, as she desperately held her axe up in front of her as she tried not to shake too much at the situation she now found herself in. She was practically an amateur at the magic game, and had even __less _talent when it came to hand-to-hand, and here she was, about to go up against a demon with almost _unimaginable_ magical powers, armed with only an _axe_?doing? Willow asked herself, as she desperately held her axe up in front of her as she tried not to shake too much at the situation she now found herself in. She was practically an amateur at the magic game, and had even talent when it came to hand-to-hand, and here she was, about to go up against a demon with almost magical powers, armed with only an ? 

Quite frankly, this was _not _a good situation for her to be in.

OK, so she was fighting side-by-side with Buffy, a former assassin for the demon underworld, a half-demon Irishman who had visions courtesy of the higher powers in this game, and one of the most powerful witches who'd ever lived (If Giles' information was accurate), but even as she thrust her axe towards her opponent (Scoring a narrow victory as she slightly cut his arm even as the sucker 'shimmied' away or whatever the expression was), she couldn't help but feel _hopelessly _out of her depth at the moment.

"_Keep him busy_!" Phoebe yelled over at Willow as she lashed out with a powerful kick at the Source's 'face', sending the sucker staggering backwards slightly, his face flexing in an unsettling manner.

"_Don't give him a chance to recover_!" another voice yelled form off to the side; Willow vaguely recognised it as that 'Belthazor' guy who'd been there earlier before she saw an energy ball strike their foe in the side, once again knocking him off-balance before he'd even managed to regain his footing from the previous blow. "_We've got to keep him distracted so he can't cast any spells_!"

For a moment, Willow was frozen as she stared at the Source's face, unable to fully register Phoebe's earlier call in her direction. Something about his slightly 'unsteady' appearance briefly reminded of vampires shifting into their 'game faces' after attacking their foes; it was almost as though the Source was trying to _stop _himself from shifting his appearance, as though he was creating an illusionary appearance that he couldn't quite manage to maintain…

Somehow, this idea of further, _deliberate_ deception on the Source's part made Willow even more anxious than she already was.

"No problem!" Buffy added, launching her own quick kick to the Source's back that sent him flying forward once again, just in time for Doyle to land a quick, if amateur, karate chop to the sucker's throat; clearly he didn't do much of the physical work back in Los Angeles. "Keeping bad guys distracted is one of my specialities!"

_Then again_, Willow mused to herself, as she witnessed the Source staggering slightly in pain from the multiple blows, _maybe this won't be as difficult as I thought_.

The Source was powerful, true, but it was clear that his ability to get off a decent spell was directly linked to his ability to concentrate long enough to focus the required magical energy against his target, and, with multiple attacks coming at him from all sides, at a speed that he clearly couldn't match, he didn't have the time to even try _one _spell.

"How does it feel to be _helpless _for once, Sourcey-boy?" Phoebe taunted, grinning slightly as she jammed her fingers into his eyes, grinning once again as he staggered back, clutching his face in pain.

"You see, _this _is why you'd never have lasted against the Charmed Ones even if you _hadn't _been dumb enough to take us on when we've got back-up," Belthazor stated grimly, as he launched another energy ball towards the Source, sending him staggering back once again just in time for the back of his head to meet another punch from Buffy. "You're too confident in your powers to bother with using anything else in a struggle; you've not put even the _slightest _effort in learning other methods of combat."

"But _us_?" Phoebe added, as she launched another rapid punch at the Source's face, grinning as he was sent backwards once more. "We've learned… we've adapted… we've researched… and _none _of us limit ourselves to just _one_ method of tackling our opponents."

"We use magic, spells, weapons… whatever works, really," Buffy added, as she jabbed two fingers into the Source's eyes before following it up with a quick kick to the jaw that seemed to knock a tooth or two out of the sucker's mouth as he was nearly sent flying through the air. "Put it in a nutshell? We're willing to change to accommodate whatever we find ourselves dealing with in a fight situation."

"Which," Willow added, trying not to show her fear as she raised her axe to launch her own blow, "is _precisely _why _we _fight side-by-side with a group of legends and _you _are just one demon of many that'll end their days dead at our feet!"

Trying to conceal her own still-remaining fear at what she was facing at the moment, she lunged forward with the axe, digging the blade deeply into her opponent's shoulder, unable to stop a wide grin spreading over her face as the Source screamed in agony, thick black blood oozing out of the wound like Willow had just struck oil.

"AARRGGHH!!" the Source screamed, thrusting out a hand to hurl Willow away from him, although the axe remained where it was; if Phoebe hadn't managed to fly over and catch Willow, the younger witch would have at least had a broken arm.

His actions didn't win the Source any time, however; no sooner had he reached up to try and haul the axe out of his shoulder, Buffy had charged forward to strike the axe directly on the handle, sending it even further into her foe's shoulder. As the powerful demon screamed in agony from the increased pain in his arm, Belthazor launched another energy ball at their opponent, which was rapidly followed up by yet another rapid kick from Buffy that simultaneously dislodged the axe and seemed to break the demon's jaw.

"How do you like _that_?" Buffy grinned, as the Source screamed in agony and clutched at his distorted jaw. "We're kicking _ass _right now, my friends!"

"Oh yeah!" Phoebe smiled, as she exchanged a rapid high-five with the vampire Slayer. "You're going _down_, buddy!"

"AARRGGHH!" another voice suddenly screamed from off to the side, causing most of the group to glance over in the direction of the scream to see what had caused it (Belthazor, of course, remained facing the Source; even badly injured, he knew that his opponent was never to be underestimated).

Quite frankly, when the combined team saw what had caused the scream, none of them could quite believe it; Adam, the supposedly 'perfect' warrior created by the Initiative and the Source using a combination of science, magic, and various assorted demonic body parts, was knelt on the ground in the centre of a semi-circle consisting of Angel, Piper, Spike and Paige, his own mechanical arm sticking into his side as he clutched pathetically at a badly-bleeding wound in his neck.

He was clearly in pain, of course, but the fact that he was in that pitiful a condition after only a few minutes of combat made it pretty clear to all concerned parties that he was far from being as powerful as his creators had intended for him to be.

"Nice job," Angel said, nodding over at Paige in approval, which at least provided a partial answer as to how Adam's arm had ended up in his chest.

"Well… I try my best," Paige replied, nodding briefly back at him before looking over at the others. "Oh, hey guys; everything going well at your end?"

"About what you'd expect; we're kicking ass and taking… well, OK, not really taking _names_, because this guy doesn't even seem to _have _a name, but you catch my drift, right?" Willow added, casually grabbing her axe from where it had fallen and glancing back over her shoulder at their opponent as he lay bleeding on the ground, clutching pathetically at his injuries.

"_Damn_…" Piper whistled as she stared at the figure before her sister and allies, before glancing back at Phoebe. "Y'know, there's _definitely _something in the idea of just _hitting _the other guy."

"Well, it just proves what they say; sometimes, the basic ideas are the best ones," Buffy chuckled, giving the witch a brief thumbs-up before she turned around to look back at the figure before her. "Now then, any chance we could settle this the _easy _way now? As in, the way where you_ don't _end up with even _more _broken bones before we cut your head off… or do whatever it is that'll kill you for good?"

"SILENCE!" the Source roared, as he glared back at the Slayer; either his jaw was already healing or he didn't entirely 'talk' in the same way as pretty Much every other demon they'd encountered did. "You shall all _PAY _for what you have done to me!"

"Oh, give it _up_, willya?" Phoebe said, glaring critically at where the self-proclaimed 'Source of All Evil Magic' stood shakily before them, bleeding from multiple wounds after the assorted attacks of his foes. "We've totally kicked your _ass _here, and your little 'project' is already on his knees after a few minutes of fighting with just _four _people; what do we have to do to make you admit that you don't have a chance of winning, _kill _you?"

"FOOLS!" the Source yelled at the nine warriors facing him, each one of them tensed and ready for action as they stared at the batted bodies of him and Adam, the remains of the triborg's mechanical arm hanging limp as the Source's black blood freely leaked from the wound in his side. "Maybe you're accurate in saying that Adam and I can'tbeat you in a confrontation _on our own_…"

Angel's eyes widened in horror as he took in the implications of that sentence; glancing over at his allies, he saw that Buffy, Piper, Spike, Phoebe, Cole and Doyle also seemed to realise what it meant, although Paige and Willow didn't appear entirely certain where the Source was going with that comment.

Unfortunately, they were destined not to remain in ignorance for long.

"But _together_?" the Source asked, a broad smile spreading across his bloodstained face as he turned to look at Adam's fallen body. "_That _is a totally different concept!"

At this confirmation of what he'd suspected, Angel's eyes, if that was possible, became even wider.

_Oh… no…_ he thought to himself, glancing anxiously over at Buffy and Piper as he processed what the Source had just said.

If that meant what he _thought _it meant…

Desperately, Angel leapt towards the Source as the powerful being seemed to literally _dive _towards Adam, his body shifting into dark red energy as he seemed to almost _envelop_ the damaged form below him. Even as Angel's hands reached out for the body before him, he knew that he would never make it there in time…

Then the red energy that had been the Source struck the damaged body of Adam, releasing a massive burst of raw magical energy that sent all the observers staggering backwards from the sheer intensity of the 'explosion'.

_Great_… Angel mused to himself, as he was sent hurtling through the air for the second time in the last hour or so. _There's no other way to say it; when this part's over, this fight is _really _going to be a tricky one_…


	18. The Final Round: The Dark VS The Heroes

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

What Makes a Monster?

_Damnit_! Piper thought to herself, as she found herself flying through the air as a result of the magical 'explosion' before her; she vaguely registered that her sisters and allies were in a similar position, but, right now, she only had the time to focus on her own problems at the moment. In a desperate attempt to regain her balance, Piper spun wildly in mid-air, trying to reorganise herself so that she landed on her feet rather than hit the ground head-first, only partially succeeding as she managed to land on the ground so that her left arm took the brunt of the impact.

The arm _hurt_, of course, but given that the alternative was for her to have possibly broken her neck, she considered an arm to be a fair trade-off; the limb didn't even feel that badly damaged, so she could at least continue to hold her own in the struggle. Glancing around, Piper was relieved to note that most of her allies appeared to have gotten out of the situation relatively unharmed. Buffy, Angel, Spike, Doyle, Belthazor and Paige's enhanced healing had probably already attended to any injuries they may have sustained, while Phoebe and Willow seemed to be in a similar state to her; dazed and somewhat bruised, but otherwise OK.

_Well_, Piper mused, allowing herself a slight smile as she gave Phoebe a brief thumbs-up while shakily getting to her feet, that _went as well as I could have expected…_

Then she actually saw what was standing at the _centre _of the earlier magical 'explosion', and amended her thoughts from 'relieved' to 'downright shocked'.

Standing at the location where the damaged Adam and the bleeding Source had once been located was now only a single being, looking significantly more dangerous than either of its counterparts ever had. The creature was wearing a long black cloak, stretching back from its shoulders to reach down to its feet, the cloak almost seeming to be a part of its body.

As with Adam, the right arm was mechanical while the left arm was a demon's arm, but unlike Adam, the left hand seemed to be almost _pulsing _with dark red energy, reminding Piper uncomfortably of a warlock charging an energy ball without actually channelling the energy into the ball. The rest of the creature's body also mostly resembled Adam's in terms of the balance between its organic and mechanical components, the only significant difference being that he now had goat-like feet as opposed to Adam's human ones.

The creature's face, however, was distinctly different from both its 'predecessors'. Whereas the Source's face had appeared fundamentally human, albeit disfigured and distorted, and Adam's had been nothing more than a hideous amalgamation of man, demon and machine, this creature's face resembled nothing more than a hideous beast, looking almost like a combination of a dog and a lizard, with dark 'scales' covering its face and sharp teeth in its mouth.

"Oh my God…" Willow whispered off to one side, as she and the others staggered to their feet, staring in shock and terror at the creature before them. "It's… it's _horrible_…"

"**Indeed**," the creature stated, its voice deep and artificial as it looked at them. "**I am the future. I am your death. I am… the Dark**."

"Sorry; 'the Dark'?" Paige said, looking sceptically at the thing in front of her. "That's a bit of a stupid name, isn't it? I mean, talk about overly melodra-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the newly-named Dark had raised his mechanical hand, flexed his fingers, and sent Paige flying off towards a distant wall, leaving Angel with just enough time to dash towards her and take the impact of her body with his own before she could hit the wall.

"**Do **_**not**_** mock me, Paige Matthews**," the Dark stated simply as he looked at the dazed witch/Whitelighter hybrid currently in Angel's arms. "**I am more powerful than **_**anything **_**you have ever faced; you have no chance of defeating me**."

"Really?" Buffy asked, smiling slightly as she glanced over at Piper. "Did that sound like a challenge to you, or is it just me?"

"Nope; that was a challenge all right," Piper responded, as she raised her hands and flexed her fingers in preparation for the upcoming confrontation. "Shall we show this sucker why that probably _wasn't _the best idea it's ever had?"

"Oh yeah…" Buffy chuckled, as she reached over to pick up a recently-discarded sword, smiling nonchalantly as she glanced over at her allies; Willow was currently heading for the exit- clearly she had concluded that, right now, her own magical abilities wouldn't lend anything distinctive to the upcoming fight- but the rest of their little group were all prepared for battle, Doyle having taken Willow's dagger while Spike clutched his axe and Phoebe and Paige raised their sword and dagger respectively.

"So, 'Darky'," Phoebe stated grimly, wincing slightly at the unintentionally racist-sounding remark- if it wasn't for the severity of both the situation and the villain that they were currently facing, she might have even tried to apologise- before continuing, "care to give up while you've still got some of your dignity intact, or still willing to try against _all _of us?"

The Dark didn't even reply; raising his mechanical arm, he casually clicked his fingers, and suddenly he had a large gleaming sword stretching from his wrist, practically crackling with dark energy as he generated an energy ball in his other hand.

"**Let us begin**," he stated.

With that, he hurled the energy ball at the group before him, almost instantly nonchalantly folding him arms to watch his handiwork…

"_Energy ball_!" Paige yelled, nearly instinctively raising her hands. As soon as she'd spoken, the energy ball turned into a whirl of blue lights, moved towards Paige, and she subsequently hurled the ball back towards the being that had created it.

"_Nice_," Angel grinned in approval as he glanced over at Paige as the Dark was sent staggering backwards by its own energy ball.

"Thanks-" Paige began, just before Willow suddenly grabbed her around the waist and hauled her off to the right just before another blast from the Dark struck her; a quick check-over was all his opponents needed to confirm that the Dark's chest was slightly singed by the attack, but he was otherwise unharmed.

"**Bold, but foolish**," he stated nonchalantly as he looked at Paige as she and Willow lay on the ground, both slightly winded from the sudden dive. "**I am eternal, Miss Matthews; as I have already attempted to make clear to you, I **_**cannot**_** die**."

* * *

"Really?" Buffy asked, flexing her shoulders and neck as she stared at the figure before her. " 'Cause, funny thing… you said something like that only a few seconds ago, and I believe that I just told you that it sounded like a challenge to me." 

"Which reminds me," Piper spoke up, as she, Buffy and Angel stepped forward to glare at the Dark, Piper raising her hands once more as Buffy and Angel clenched their fists in preparation for the upcoming fight, "we never actually _officially _accepted the challenge; shall we do so now?"

"Absolutely," Angel grinned, as he and Spike, as though on some pre-arranged signal, shifted into their vampire faces, glaring with a broad grin at the creature before them, Doyle simultaneously assuming his Brachen countenance as he glared at their opponent.

With that, the two vampires and the Slayer- Doyle may have been stronger as a demon, but he freely acknowledged that the others had more raw power than he did- lunged towards the Dark, Buffy striking the creature's throat with a kick while Angel and Spike rammed the Dark's shoulders with the palms of their hands. The blow may have almost hurt the combatants more than the Dark- Spike in particular; he'd been unlucky enough to strike the Dark's metal arm- but it had the desired effect; the combined force of no less than _three _supernaturally-enhanced beings striking him simultaneously sent the Dark staggering backwards, briefly knocking him off-balance.

"Oh yeah…" Piper chuckled, as she flicked her hands at the creature before her, smiling in approval as a small chunk of metal broke off the Dark's metallic arm where Spike had dented it. "_This _is gonna be interesting…"

She just wished she was as confident inside as she was trying to project to everybody else. Against something as powerful as the Dark, the only spell she and her sisters had that might even have a _chance _of putting the sucker down was that thing they'd whipped up on the way over here to destroy the Source, and she had no idea if it would be anything _like _strong enough to vanquish something as powerful as the Dark seemed to be.

Physical strength was a possibility, of course, but since this guy had just taken punches from Buffy, Angel _and _Spike without showing any signs of long-term damage, Piper somehow doubted that they could exert anything like the necessary raw power that might be needed to put the Dark down _that _way…

The net result was that, if they didn't come up with something _fast_, Piper doubted that she and her allies would come out of this fight alive.

* * *

As Riley hurried back towards Lowell House, his weapons clutched in his hand as he glared grimly ahead, he tried not to think too much about what he'd have to deal with when he reached the Initiative base. 

If what he'd seen of the 'team' that _Buffy_- the name made him sick to his stomach; he couldn't believe he'd ever felt _anything _for somebody who would actually _defend _a vampire- had gathered together, they were dealing with a vampire, two demons, and… whatever Buffy and that long-haired brunette were (They weren't anything he knew, but Riley knew for a _fact_ that Buffy _couldn't _be that strong if she was normal, and that woman must have done _something _to him that accounted for him suddenly being in the cupboard).

_It's not going to be easy_, Riley mused to himself as he moved to open the door before him, mentally preparing himself for what he'd have to do when he reached his headquarter, _but, if Buffy has to die to protect the Initiat-_

His train of thought was suddenly cut off when something suddenly struck the back of his head, sending him staggering forward briefly before he regained his balance and spun around to strike at his opponent. He barely had time to register that he was looking at another of Buffy's 'allies'- this one a rather striking-looking brunette who seemed to be about her age- before she struck him in the face once again, sending him staggering backwards just as Forrest and Graham entered the house behind him.

"Take _that_!" somebody else yelled, striking out at Forrest with a surprisingly efficient kick. Forrest was naturally good at his job- it would have been stupid for him _not _to be when they were dealing with beings who were naturally far stronger than any normal human- and yet this guy was somehow able to not only hold his own against Forrest, but actually _hurt _him in a fight…

If it wasn't for the fact that vampires always shifted to their _real _faces when fighting, Riley would almost have assumed they were dealing with the aforementioned bloodsuckers here, but as the man's face was normal, he wasn't sure _what _to think…

Then one of the other men standing there- a tall man who had a subdued military bearing, like he had been a soldier once but hadn't done it for a long time- disappeared in a brief swirl of white lights, reappearing behind Graham to launch a powerful strike at the back of his head, and Riley instantly reevaluated the danger he and his friends were now in.

Whatever these things were, they were _not _human.

Riley didn't hesitate; reaching into his jacket, he pulled out his taser gun and fired it directly at the man who'd just done the 'teleportation' trick. As the man screamed in pain, his four 'allies'- if such a term could apply to people who'd actually _help _something that wasn't human- turned around to lash out at Riley. Unwilling to have any human corpses to deal with- he couldn't afford to attract attention to himself or his associates at this point- Riley simply kicked out at the blonde woman- she'd struck him so far as the least effective fighter-, striking her in the chest and sending her staggering backwards.

"_Move_!" he yelled over at Forrest and Graham, as the three remaining traitorous humans looked anxiously over at their dazed allies; like any idiotic animal, they spent more time concerned with any loud noises rather than focusing on their target. "We have to get down to the base _immediately_!"

As professional as ever, Forrest and Graham didn't stop to question his new orders; they both just dived past their would-be attackers, dashed through the open door to the base- Riley noted that with no small degree of anxiety, but pushed it aside; that just proved that his presence in the Initiative's headquarters would be needed now more than ever-, hurried down the stairs…

And his eyes widened in horror at the sight of the battle being waged before him in the main entrance hall, as Buffy and her 'allies' clashed with a monstrous amalgamation of machine, human and demon. Even as Riley watched, the demon with spikes all over its face launched a punch at the creature, followed closely by the red-skinned 'Belthazar' launching one of those energy ball things- Riley wished he knew how they did that; he wouldn't have minded access to that kind of weapon himself- at the thing in the centre of the circle formed by Buffy's 'team'.

_Shit_, Riley groaned as he studied the creature in the middle of the room.

Just when he thought he'd understood what he was dealing with- a bunch of vampires and demons who'd allied themselves with a bunch traitorous humans of who'd betray their own kind for power- something like _that _sucker had to show up and make everything even _more _complicated.

_Damnit_, he mused silently to himself, as he reached into his coat to pull out his taser gun, _now I've got to deal with the _bigger _guns before we can get onto tackling those traitors to humanity…_

"_Move in_!" he yelled over at his colleagues, raising his gun above his head as he glared at the group of abominations below him. "Focus on the big one, but take out anybody else if you can!"

With that said, the three soldiers charged down the stairs towards their adversaries, Riley leading the attack on the large creature in the middle of the room, his taser raised before him as he dashed through a gap between the various combatants around him…

Only for the figure to reach up without even looking in his direction, grab Riley by the neck, and hurl him away towards a distant wall as though he wasn't even worth the effort needed to turn around and see if he was actually dead.

* * *

"What the… _Riley_?" Buffy yelled, as she spun around to look at the new arrivals; she couldn't _believe _that Riley was stupid enough to come down here after everything he'd seen them do. "What the Hell are _you _guys doing here; this is _way _out of your league-" 

"Don't _lie _to me any more, you _freak_!" Riley yelled at her, as Forrest and Graham joined, taking up position on either side of him, their guns clutched in their hands as they aimed it at the small army of freaks and traitors before them. "Human or not, you're all _monsters_! If humanity is ever going to survive, you and your kind all have to _die_, and we're the only ones who can actually _do _anything about it!"

"Geez, melodramatic much?" Paige muttered to Willow, even as she and the other members of the Scooby/Charmed/Angel Investigations team glanced anxiously between the soldiers and the Dark, who was looking at the new arrivals like he wasn't sure what to do with them. "Y'know, didn't you _ever _read _X-Men _when you were growing up? Not _everything _that isn't entirely human is going to try and brutally murder the species when they're sleeping…"

"**SILENCE!!**" the Dark suddenly roared, launching a lightning blot from his fingertips that struck Spike directly in the back and sent the vampire flying into the wall; evidently he wanted to kill them in a head-on confrontation rather than just taking them out while they were distracted.

"Hoo boy…" Doyle muttered, as he glanced in the direction of their dazed 'ally' as he lay on the floor. "_That's _gotta suck…"

Buffy was about to say something to add to that particular comment- she was thinking of commenting on how it wasn't exactly much worse than what Spike had done to some of his victims back in the day- but a sudden yell from Riley distracted her; evidently he'd recovered from the Dark's initial attack and _still _hadn't learned his lesson.

"DIE!" the Iowan farm boy roared, as he, Forrest and Graham brought up their taser guns and charged towards the Dark, firing the guns directly at their adversary. The electrical charges struck the Dark's cloak and armour, spreading rapidly across his body like the electrical attack he'd just launched at Spike…

The only noticeable difference was that, in this instance, it didn't actually _do _anything to the Dark; if anything, he seemed to actually _absorb _the electrical energy that was launched at him, channelling and redirecting it into his mechanical components as he stared mockingly at the soldiers.

"**A pathetic attempt, my 'friends'**," he stated grimly. "**Let us see how you fare against… **_**THIS**_"

With that, he rapidly raised his arm and hurled a brilliant blue energy ball at the soldiers, the three new arrivals only just managing to dodge the attack as it struck the wall behind them.

"Ah, _nuts_…" a voice said from the top of the flight of stairs that led to the Initiative's only currently known entrance and exit.

"_Leo_?" Piper said, glancing grimly up at the exit, feeling simultaneously relieved and frustrated as she saw her husband and the rest of their new allies standing there; they may have back-up now, but given that none of the new arrivals actually _had _any powers that they could use in combat- Leo's ability to orb wasn't _quite _what they needed right now-, she wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.

* * *

"What; you guys _still _want to help these… these _things_?" Graham said, looking up in surprise at the new arrivals. "We kicked your asses up there, and you're asking for _another _round of-?" 

Whatever Graham might have been about to say was something that would always remain a mystery; as soon as he had turned to look at the entrance, the Dark, apparently unconcerned about the temporarily-distracted Slayer, vampires, witches and demons around him, walked straight up to Graham and punched right through the soldier's chest with his mechanical arm.

Glancing over at his supernatural-based foes, the Dark chuckled slightly as he pushed Graham's body off his arm, leaving it to fall to the floor as he walked back towards the group in the middle of the room, Riley and Forrest clearly being regarded as not worth his effort.

"**Out of respect for your talents, I shall give you this one chance to live**," the Dark said, his eyes narrowed in a manner that contradicted the friendly tone in his voice as he studied the Slayer, the vampires, the witches and the demons who'd banded together to take him down. "**You have witnessed my power, and thus know that you cannot defeat me; leave now, and you shall not die today**."

"Uh… didn't we already get told something like that?" Buffy inquired, glancing over at the others. "I mean, he was saying we couldn't kill him earlier, but now he's actually giving us the opportunity to _leave _because we allegedly won't be able to take him down…"

"He _does _seem to be going on about how we _can't _win this fight an awful lot for somebody who's indestructible," Phoebe put in, staring critically at their new enemy, hands on her hips. "Y'know, I'm starting to wonder who he's trying to convince here; us, or himself?"

"Shall we find out?" Belthazor inquired, raising his hands to form another energy ball.

"Oh yeah," Piper stated, flicking her hands at the Dark just as Belthazor launched the energy ball at its target. On their own, the two attacks may not have managed to make a significant impression on their opponent, but together they seemed to make more of an impact; at the very least, a crack emerged in his mechanical arm where the two attacks had struck him.

* * *

"How do you like _that_?" Buffy smiled, giving Piper a quick thumbs-up of approval at the attack, before she turned to look at Angel and Spike. "We've got a crack in his armour- literally, I might add-; let's do it!" 

With that said, the three warriors charged at the Dark, Angel and Spike grabbing both his arms as Buffy launched a powerful kick at his chest. The sheer force of Buffy's attack, coupled with the strength of the two vampires on either side of him, not only managed to dent the metal that composed part of the Dark's body, but also to the already-damaged metallic arm that Spike was currently holding. The arm still didn't break- clearly the magic holding it together was remarkably powerful- but the crack that had been formed by Piper and Belthazor's earlier attack became even larger, exposing some of the circuitry within it.

"Wires!" Paige yelled, waving her hand towards the crack, smiling broadly as the wires from within the damaged arm appeared in her hand, leaving the Dark staring in shock at the sudden injury.

"Oh yeah!" Buffy yelled over at the witches, as she, Angel and Spike continued to pummel the large demon/machine hybrid before them, Doyle jumping in with the occasional blow himself as the fight continued. "Chew on _that_, you son of a-"

"NOBODY MOVE!" a voice suddenly yelled from one of the corridors that connected up to the side of the main entrance hall.

"What the…?" Cordelia asked, turning to look in confusion at the source of the voice, only to groan as she realised who was actually standing there; what appeared to be every soldier currently remaining within the Initiative, aiming their weapons at the Dark and his opponents with a clear lack of concern for which side they actually hit.

"Aw, _nuts_…" Xander groaned, as he glanced over at Leo. "Y'know, it's at times like this that I _really _wish our plans would just work out the way they're _meant _to go for once…"

"_Everyone down on the ground_, NOW!" one of the soldiers yelled at the group of people before them. "_We're all armed and we're not afraid to use these weapons_!"

"Oh God…" Phoebe sighed, as she glanced over at Willow. "Why is it there's always at least _one _person who _cannot _accept that what they're capable of _won't _be enough to deal with the current problem?"

"Who knows?" Willow replied, shrugging slightly before she turned to look at the soldiers before her, raising her hands in a calming gesture after making sure she wasn't holding a weapon right now. "Look, if everyone would just calm down for a few seconds, maybe we can talk-"

"**I am the Dark; I do not **_**talk**_," the Dark said, an almost scathing tone in his voice as he stared at the soldier who'd just spoken. The combined Sunnydale/Los Angeles/San Francisco residents could only assume that he was more interested in this group right now because they were larger; the soldiers definitely couldn't put up more of a fight than they were at the moment. "**What I **_**do**_**… is **_**kill**_."

Raising his arm- his damaged mechanical one, Doyle noted; it might be worth considering whether there was a reason he used that one other than to show that his loss of it wouldn't have that significant an effect on him-, the Dark launched a brief burst of electricity at the soldiers before him, each of them suddenly being linked and shaking as a result of the blue energy suddenly coursing through them. Those who'd been there were reminded of the Judge's initial attack on the Sunnydale mall before his destruction; those who hadn't been just thought it looked very unpleasant.

To their credit, however, the Initiative soldiers refused to back down; even with the pain that must have been practically consuming their bodies, they nevertheless raised their weapons, still clutched in their hands, all of them pointing at the Dark's approximate location.

Unfortunately, the area where the guns were currently aimed at would also include the location where Buffy, Piper, Angel and their respective teams were standing.

* * *

"DUCK!" the three leaders yelled, spinning around to look at their friends as the soldiers fired their guns. The bullets were only being launched at random, but there were so many of them that it would have been impossible for the Dark to have come through the assault untouched. As the assorted teams watched the sight before them, trying to stay low enough to avoid any stray bullets- for the moment, the soldiers seemed to be concentrating their fire on the Dark, clearly identifying him as the greatest threat- the electricity linking the soldiers suddenly terminated, as though the Dark was too busy trying to cope with the mass of bullets currently being fired at him to 'worry' about a small detail like that. 

For a moment, as they watched the powerful demon being sent staggering backwards by the mass of gunfire that was currently being directed at him, Buffy and the others thought that maybe, just _maybe_, the soldiers might be able to pull it off and defeat the Dark _for _them.

Then the demon regained his balance, the bullets started to just bounce off his body rather than send him staggering backwards, and he assumed a stance that made it clear to all watching the scene before them that he was _not _going to be taken down by just a bunch of bullets.

"**ENOUGH!!!**" the Dark roared, hurling the oncoming bullets up into the air with a single wave of his hand as he glared at his opponents. "**THIS FOOLISHNESS WILL **_**END**_** NOW!!!**"

With that said, he raised one hand high into the air, a dark blue glow suddenly emanating from the clenched fist. As the Dark's assorted opponents scrambled to their feet, the Initiative base began to shake and shudder all around them, as though it had suddenly become the centre of a miniature earthquake.

"**You believe you mere **_**mortals **_**can match my power**?" the Dark stated as he stared over at the Initiative soldiers, a broad smirk on his face as he studied the people who had both created and been manipulated by his two respective 'components' (It wasn't the best term to describe what Adam and the Source were to the Dark, but it did the job as well as any other word could have; parents didn't work at all). "**Now witness my **_**full **_**strength, that you may better understand the scale of your foolishness**!!!"

As his current opponents watched the sight before them, everyone who might have been able to do some damage in a head-on attack too dazed by the recent assault to actually do anything about it, the Dark opened the fist he'd formed, releasing a burst of energy that seemed to pass straight _through _the walls, triggering what could best be described as a localised earthquake right in the vicinity of the soldiers who'd been preparing to fire at the powerful demon once again. Before any of them could react, the walls behind them had collapsed as though something had given them a powerful kick, sending rubble flying and crashing into various soldiers in a manner that clearly didn't leave many of the people immediately in front of it standing.

Not even Xander could find the energy to make a joke of any kind about the fact that they didn't need to worry about evacuating the rest of the people in the Initiative; given the power the Dark had displayed so far, it seemed like a safe guess that anybody left in the base had joined this last desperate attack against such a powerful foe, only to meet their deaths in a matter of seconds.

* * *

"Oh my God…" Paige whispered, staring in shock at the bodies before her, unintentionally speaking for the rest of the team as they viewed the sight in front of them with horror. "So many people… and he just… just…" 

She couldn't even finish, but none of them needed her to.

Even after everything they'd seen in their lives, there was still something horrifying about something that could cause the deaths of so many people so cold-heartedly.

Before any of them could respond to the Dark's latest atrocity, Forrest and Riley- they'd been standing at the opposite end of the room from the rest of the soldiers, and so had come away from the Dark's last attack relatively unharmed- screamed in rage and charge for the Dark once again, their weapons raised as they raced towards the man who'd just destroyed what had to be at least most- if not all- of the soldiers within the Initiative in a matter of seconds.

The Dark barely even needed to think about it; as Riley reached him, he grabbed the Iowan commando by the arm and hurled back the way he'd come, his arm twisted in a significantly unpleasant manner between the wrist and the elbow. In almost the same motion, the Dark's broken metallic arm was thrust directly into Forrest's chest, the serrated metal edges of the torn metal digging into his body and clearly penetrating several vital organs in the process.

It was all so fast that Forrest didn't even have time to scream; one minute, he was alive, and the next, his corpse was hanging limply off the end of the Dark's mechanical arm, looking like some grotesque pin-up.

"Oh God…" Willow whispered, raising one hand to cover her mouth as she stared in shock at the sight before her, as the Dark casually threw Forrest's body away to join the corpses of the other Initiative soldiers. "I… I think I'm going to be sick…"

Turning to look at his only remaining adversaries, the Dark smiled casually.

"_**Now**_** do you see the foolishness of attempting to defeat me in battle**?" he asked, raising a critical eyebrow at the assorted supernatural warriors standing before him. "**I have overcome multiple opponents in a matter of seconds; what can you all **_**possibly **_**do to defeat me**?"

"Good question," Buffy said simply, flexing her shoulders as she stared at the figure before her. "Why don't we find out?"

Glancing back at Angel, Spike, Doyle and Belthazor, she jerked her thumb towards their opponent. "Well, we're the muscle here; shall we show this guy what we're made of?"

"_Let's_," Spike said, grinning broadly as he stared at the creature before him.

As though his words were a signal for all four of the others, the team's five powerhouses instantly charged towards the Dark, Doyle and Belthazor lashing out whenever the Dark was already distracted- their weaker strength made a head-on assault from them impractical at best- while Buffy, Angel and Spike delivered the more damaging blows.

The Dark still wasn't down for the count, but at least he was having trouble keeping track of them all; evidently his magic depended on him having a moment to actually _do _anything about the situation he was in, otherwise he would have cast another spell to deal with his attackers.

_He may be powerful_, Buffy mused as she and Angel launched simultaneous powerful kicks at their current foe, striking him in the chest as Doyle and Belthazor kicked out at a leg each, _but let's see how he copes with _these _kind of numbers_.

In the end, it was moments like this that convinced her that the Watcher's Council had long made a mistake by insisting that the Slayers worked alone; only with numbers did she stand a chance against foes like _this _creep.

* * *

As she watched her new friends fighting desperately against an opponent that combined the worst aspects of both their respective magical worlds, Phoebe knew that this was it. 

If they didn't try now, they were _never _going to win this fight.

"Quick!" she yelled over at Piper and Paige, as Angel narrowly ducked under a blow from the Dark's remaining intact arm. "While he's distracted, we have to try the vanquishing spell!"

It was a long shot, Phoebe knew, but right now they didn't have much of a choice; if they were ever going to defeat the Dark, given his clearly vastly superior physical strength to even their best fighters, the vanquishing spell was their best chance of success.

"Right," Piper said, nodding briefly at her sister before she reached into her pockets and pulled out a small bunch of crystals. Glancing up at Paige, the club owner was relieved to see Paige nod in confirmation at her; evidently her new little sister remembered and was ready for her part in their current plan. As Buffy, Angel, Spike, Doyle and Belthazor lashed out with a multitude of punches and kicks at the Dark- Belthazor and Doyle may have lacked the raw strength of their allies, but they were still strong enough to make a significant impression on their foe, and right now the important thing was more to keep him distracted rather than to actually stop him- Paige raised her hand, her eyes narrowed in resolve.

"Crystal!" she yelled, waving her hand as the crystals in Piper's hand instantly turned into white lights and flew towards her.

"Circle!" she added, redirecting the lights to form a circle around the Dark.

"Everyone, _get back_!" Phoebe yelled instantly, looking anxiously at her boyfriend and her assorted new allies; she wasn't sure whether the vanquishing spell would vanquish something that wasn't evil, but given that she was talking about two vampires and two half-demons, she thought it best not to take any chances. Fortunately, one call was all that was needed; as soon as they heard the seer's yell, Angel, Buffy and Spike leapt backwards, Belthazor grabbing Doyle's arm and shimmering the two of them out of harm's way at the same time.

As soon as their allies were out of harm's way, Piper seized her chance.

She freely admitted that this was a long shot by any stretch of the imagination- there was no way of knowing if this spell would have worked against the Source, to say nothing of against something that was possibly even _more _powerful than him- but, at the moment, they didn't have much of a choice but to try.

"_NOW_!" she yelled over at her sisters. Instantly she, Paige and Phoebe began to chant, a wall of white energy instantly springing up from the crystals they'd just planted around the powerful demon.

"_Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda_," Piper began.

"_Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace_," Paige continued.

"**NO!!**" the Dark screamed, as his entire body began to burn, flames spreading all over his body as he stared in shock at the sisters and their allies as they stood around him. "**YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!!**"

"_Halliwell witches stand strong beside us_…" all three sisters continued, staring grimly at their current adversary, their hands linked as they channelled their magical energies through each other.

"Guess what?" Cordelia interjected, glaring at the Source as the chanting continued behind her. "We're doing it anyway, _asshole_."

"… _And vanquish this demon from time and space_!" the Halliwells concluded, unconcerned about the 'exchange' between the demon and the former cheerleader as they stared grimly at the sight before them, their eyes narrowed as they watched their spell take him apart.

"**NNNNOOOOoooo…**" the Dark screamed, his hands pathetically stretched out before him as the whirl of white energy surrounded him, compressing around his body as the flames ignited in a burst of light that could have rivalled the sun in terms of intensity…

Then the light faded, leaving only the crystals that the Halliwells had thrown there earlier lying on the floor; not even the Dark's ashes were left.

* * *

"_Damn_…" Buffy whistled as she studied the sight before her, before glancing over at Paige with a grateful smile. "Gotta hand it to you guys; when you want to kill the demons, you _really _kill 'em." 

"We try," Paige said nonchalantly. "Besides, I'd definitely say you guys helped us out here; I doubt we'd have pulled it off without you all softening him up and keeping him… 'occupied', to say the least… beforehand."

"As you said; we try," Buffy replied in an equally nonchalant manner as she indicated the crystals lying on the ground before them. "Gotta say, though, your method _does _have its perks; don't need to worry about cleaning up the corpse, for one-"

"_Freeze_!" a voice yelled from off to the side. "Everyone get down on the ground and put your hands where I can see them, _now_!"

"Oh God…" Angel groaned, as he and the others turned to look at the source of the voice; Riley Finn, clutching a gun in his only working hand as he stared grimly at the young man before him. "Look, Riley, you've already been thrown about the place so often I'm surprised that _more _of your bones haven't been broken by this point; don't you think you're quite _finished _making an ass of yourself by now?"

"Yeah, I gotta admit, Angel's got a point; you couldn't actually _win _this one even if you were at full health," Paige added, looking critically at the soldier. "I mean, your left arm was pretty severely broken by the Dark, your right leg seems to be twisted into a _very _unpleasant angle, and there's blood all over the left side of your head from where you hit the wall; what makes you think you could take out _any _of us?"

"_Shut up_!" Riley yelled, shifting his gun's aim to point at Paige. "You're all demons and race traitors! I _have _to kill you all! It's the only way to _protect _everybody!"

"Riley…" Buffy sighed in frustration as she looked at him, "you're potentially a decent guy, we get that you think you're doing the right thing, and if things had been different, we _might _have been able to feel sorry for you…"

Then, before Riley could say anything else to react to that, Buffy had stepped forward, grabbed the gun in his hand, yanked it away from him, and punched him in the face, sending him collapsing to the ground with a bleeding nose.

"Unfortunately," the Slayer concluded as she looked down at his unconscious body, a neutral expression on her face as she studied the man she'd thought was just a teaching assistant, "things are the way they are, and all I see when I look at you is a git who can't accept that he's been _told _is right may be wrong."

"They're all-!" Riley protested, waving his hands desperately at Angel, Spike, Belthazor and Doyle, all of whom were still in their demon faces.

"What; 'not human'?" Willow practically spat as she glared at Riley. "And that _automatically _makes them bad people? This may be a newsflash for you, _Mr Finn_, but there are _plenty _of human beings out there who're absolutely _terrible _examples of humanity; is it really _fair _to assume that demons aren't good people just because they've got spikes all over their faces, or because their skin's red rather than 'the human norm', or some other _crap _like that?"

"And if you even _think_ about listing vampires or something like that as an example of how demons aren't people, than you're going to lose _any _right you have to even _try _and convince us to let you live," Buffy added, folding her arms as she stared at Riley. "You're a racist, Riley; you need to accept that. Demons are people too, you know; most of them would be perfectly happy to get by making a living in the world without actually trying to _conquer _it at the drop of a hat."

"They're all _monsters_!" Riley protested as he stared back at Buffy. However, it was easy to note that his words lacked the conviction he'd possessed when he started speaking; unfortunately, Buffy couldn't be sure whether that was because he was starting to understand the point she was trying to make or just because his earlier injuries were finally catching up to him. "They all must _die_, don't you _get _that? It's the only way the world will _ever _be safe!"

Sighing in frustration, Buffy glanced over at Piper, raising a frustrated eyebrow as she looked at the witch.

"Do you get the impression he isn't listening to a _word _I say?" she asked the witch pityingly.

"Yep," Piper nodded.

"Well then," the Slayer said resignedly as she walked towards Riley. "Just one last thing for you to think about, Farm-Boy; if we _were _'evil'…"

Mid-sentence, she spun around right in front of Riley, her foot striking the side of his head, sending him collapsing to the ground in a heap.

"You'd be dead instead of unconscious," Buffy stated simply as she looked at Riley's unconscious body, before stretching slightly and looking back at her friends. "Somewhat over-the-top, I know, but it got my point across at least."

"_Ouch_…" Paige winced, as she glanced at the unconscious body before her before looking back at the Slayer. "Remind me not to make you angry."

"Duly noted," Buffy smiled back at the half-Whitelighter, before her eyes narrowed and she looked back down at Riley. "Well, with pretty much everyone else in this place having been apparently killed, anybody have any recommendations about what we do with him and Walsh?"

"Loony bin," Anya said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Leo said, looking over at Anya in surprise.

"Well, we can't just let them go with what they know; who's to say they won't refuse to learn their lesson from this mess and try again?" Anya pointed out, her tone of voice as casual as though she was just discussing something on television rather than the outcome of a man's life. "Best bet seems to be stick them in the nuthouse under false names and claim that they're suffering from delusions that demons exist and they're part of a group created to fight; who's going to take them seriously in a mental institution, and how's anyone meant to _find _them?"

For a moment, the rest of the team looked uncertainly at each other, each of them contemplating the upsides and downsides of doing what Anya had suggested, until, finally, Angel sighed.

"She makes a good point," he said, as he looked down at Riley. "After all, most of the Initiative members probably ended up dead when the Dark triggered that earthquake attack of his; Professor Walsh and Mr Finn here are probably the only surviving members here in Sunnydale. Even if there's somebody higher-up in the pecking order who they're meant to report to somewhere in… I dunno, Washington or wherever these people hang out… is it really likely they'll be that concerned about finding out what happened to a bunch of people who've screwed up _this _badly?"

Cole nodded grimly.

"It works, you can't deny that," he said, as he looked back at Phoebe. "It's a bit more… extreme than we like to use for humans who get caught up in this whole thing, true, but it's not like they're innocents who got involved by chance; they're professionals who made a mistake and don't seem all that willing to listen to anybody telling them that they're wrong. At least this way we can make sure we won't have to deal with them trying to set up something like this all over again; if _everybody _involved in the project's vanished, maybe whoever's in charge will realise they shouldn't try something like this _ever _again."

"Right then," Buffy said, as she reached down to haul Riley's unconscious body over her shoulder, "now that we've got that out of the way, I guess we've only got one little question… what do we all do now?"

Looking between each other, the joint teams of the Scooby Gang, the Charmed Ones, and Angel Investigations knew that it was a valid question.

After the events that had happened here, their lives could never be _quite _the same as they would have turned out without this alliance against their mutual foes…

But, with each of them having each other to call upon if they ever needed help- because Buffy, for one, was convinced that there _would _come days when some back-up would be needed to deal with some of the problems they tackled on a daily basis; she could never have defeated the Dark without the help of everyone in this room- how _would _things turn out?

One thing was for sure, though; whatever else was going to happen, it was going to be _very _interesting to see what the aftermath of this alliance was on their respective lives…

* * *

AN: If you want to know the answer to _that _little question, stay tuned; in the upcoming epilogue, we jump forward a few years to see _just _how this whole thing affected the lives of our favourite supernatural heroes, now that they all have each other to depend on when push comes to shove 


	19. Epilogue: Five Years Later

Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

AN: Just to clarify, this takes place about five years after the events of the last chapter, and looks at how the lives of the _Buffy_/_Angel_/_Charmed _team were affected by their mutual presence in each other's lives, thus enabling them to call each other for aid if they ever needed some extra help. If some of the stuff doesn't seem to quite run together, I apologise, but I wanted to clearly show how the most pivotal moments in their lives- Cole becoming the Source, Darla's resurrection, Glory, Connor's birth, the arrival of Chris, that kind of thing- were affected by the three groups working together on a regular basis

What Makes a Monster?

Five Years Later… 

"Hey, Angel?" Buffy called as she walked into the Hyperion Hotel, Piper and Willow close behind her and all three of them practically loaded down with shopping bags. "Everything OK?"

Glancing out of the door of the room that had long served as his office, Angel smiled affectionately at his wife, putting the files he was holding and walking over to give her a brief hug and a quick kiss on the forehead.

"Oh, pretty quiet; at least I don't have to worry _quite _so much about the paperwork now that we're back running a detective agency rather than a law firm," he said, before his eyes fell on the bags in the womens' arms and an anxious expression flashed across his face. "Uh… did I miss a birthday or something? I thought you guys were just going to get something for tonight's celebration…"

"Nah; Paige just figured that, since you guys didn't really have time to get out any of your stuff after we kicked the Circle's asses straight back to Hell, we should probably see about helping you guys get started on replacing all your leisure belongings, as well as get food for the 'We Beat the Black Thorn' party," Willow explained, as she dumped the bags she was carrying onto the Hyperion's reception desk before turning back to look at Angel. "Y'know, buy some new copies of some of the books and DVDs and whatever that you guys used to have before the Circle's minions trashed everything, new TVs or computers, stuff like that."

"Oh, right," Angel said, smiling gratefully at the young wicca before he glanced over at Piper. "By the way, where's Leo; I thought he was with you guys?"

"Oh, he'll be over in a bit; he just wanted to take Chris and Wyatt on a little trip to check on how things are going with Cordelia and Doyle on their honeymoon," Piper replied, unable to stop a slight smile crossing her face as she thought of how her family- specifically, her eldest son- would react to this latest little meeting with their unofficially adopted 'uncle' and 'aunt'.

Ever since Wyatt had been born, he'd quickly become attached to all of their extended family, but, for some reason, Doyle and Cordelia remained his favourites. Anya had once commented that it was probably because he enjoyed tugging at the spikes on Doyle's demon face, but in reality none of them were sure of the specific reason for his fondness for the Brachen demon, and had never felt the need to question it. Chris, by contrast, generally preferred spending time with Willow and Tara when they were all together, most likely because they were able to put on little shows for him with their magic, but he still enjoyed himself when he and his brother spent time with the Doyles.

Still, regardless of the reasons for Wyatt's fondness of Doyle, the Irish Brachen demon remained his favourite uncle, and, ever since him and Cordelia had finally settled down a few months before the final fight with the Black Thorn, Cordelia had become just as attached to Wyatt as Doyle was.

Personally, Angel attributed Cordelia's fondness of Wyatt to the fact that his father was the only reason she still _had _Doyle in her life. If Leo hadn't been present to heal Doyle's injuries after orbing him away from the Beacon in that split-second between Doyle unplugging it and it emitting the last of its power…

Even after almost five years, none of the group liked to think too much about what might have happened if Leo hadn't managed to get his 'remit' extended to include Buffy and Angel's teams as his charges; the Whitelighter had saved their lives too many times to remember, most prominently in the few seconds available to him after Buffy jumped from Glory's tower to save Dawn. Thanks to Leo's aid in the aftermath of the Scourge's defeat, the damage the Beacon had done to Doyle's human half had been repaired, and he and Cordelia had been dating each other ever since. The whole thing with the Groosalug in Pylea had made things a little awkward for a time- Cordelia finding the Pylean champion, in her own words, '_extremely_ hot', while Doyle tried to get out of the priests' attempts to make him and the Groosalug 'cum-shuk'-, but that was as bad as things had ever become between them.

"Talking of your family, where're your sisters?" Willow asked, looking curiously over at Piper. "You mentioned that they were around earlier, but you didn't actually say _where _they were…"

"Oh, Paige is just tying up some loose ends at the San Francisco branch- honestly, it's _so _much easier to get a look at crime scenes now that one of us is an official private detective- and Phoebe and Cole had to pick up the kids from nursery; they said they'd join us here as soon as that was over," Piper shrugged, smiling over at the Charmed Ones' young protégé before she looked over at Buffy and Angel inquiringly. Ever since the Charmed Ones had opened up the San Francisco branch of Angel Investigations- with Leo and Paige, naturally, acting as the detectives as the only real 'Angels' in the group-, Piper had rapidly begun to see Angel as a combination of a brother and a business partner, particularly given his own still-close friendship with her formerly-demonic brother-in-law. "How about you guys? Where's everyone else at the moment?"

"Well, Xander and Dawn are coming back from the sonogram- honestly, that kid's going to have hundreds of baby photos before it even gets out of her womb-, and Giles called ahead to say he might have some trouble clearing it with the Council, but he'll do what he can to be here," Buffy clarified, a slight smile on her face as she thought of her new sister and brother-in-law. Dawn may have been created out of nothing only a few years ago, and Buffy's memories of her may sometimes intermingle with the memories of life without her- the knowledge that she wasn't real, coupled with the constant visits of the Halliwells and their ability to sense when powerful magic like that was being used against them, had 'dislodged' some of the spells used by the monks- but, as far as everyone else was concerned, she was a real person, with real desires… and what she had desired most was Xander Harris.

It had never been destined to be an easy relationship, of course- the fact that it began in the aftermath of Xander's break-up with Anya at their own wedding being, of course, one of the most prominent issues, to say nothing of the age gap- but the rest of their mismatched group of supernatural warriors had eventually come to accept it. Buffy, ironically, had been the hardest to convince; Angel, Cole and Leo had constantly pointed out that all three of _them_ were all involved with younger women and nobody cared, but Buffy had simply countered that at least they didn't _look _their ages and refused to back down. It was only after Xander had risked his life to save Dawn from a couple of vampires that had taken her by surprise- the group had been visiting San Francisco to prepare for Chris's birth and hadn't expected vampires to appear in the city; they'd typically stayed away from the Charmed Ones, but the bounty Gideon had put on Wyatt was too big to pass up- that Buffy had finally admitted that, out of all her friends, she couldn't think of anyone else she'd rather be with Dawn.

As harsh as it might have sounded to an outsider, Anya's death had almost been a relief to the group at that point, not least because she'd no longer be obsessing over Dawn having 'stolen' Xander from her. She'd been an… interesting… person to say the least, but even before the wedding had fallen apart none of the group had been entirely comfortable around her; her general lack of social graces had, if nothing else, virtually guaranteed that the various parents in the group would never allow her to babysit their kids for fear of corrupting young minds. When she'd finally been killed by a Turok-Han in the final fight with the First, the rest of their assorted group had almost been grateful for it, as it left Xander and Dawn free to continue their relationship without Anya making a fuss over it and accusing them of having had an affair behind her back ever since Dawn started to exist.

"Well, so long as he'll get here in the end, the fine details don't matter that much," Piper said, shrugging nonchalantly as she placed her bags on the reception desk and stepped back, stretching slightly as she looked over at Willow, her eyebrow raised inquiringly. "How about Oz and Tara?"

"Oh, they decided to go along with Dawn and Xander to see if they got anywhere with that last attempt," Willow explained, shrugging slightly. "Tara still gets a _bit _uncomfortable around him, but she's getting there; after I gave birth to Nick, she's become a bit more interested in being a mommy herself."

"Y'know, I still can't quite believe those guys actually made that relationship work; two witches _and _a werewolf?" Buffy said, shaking her head slightly at the thought. "Come to that, Nick's always a confusing addition to me; I still keep expecting him to go all wolf when Daddy has to go down to the cellar."

"Diluted werewolf gene," Willow said dismissively. "He's just got enough of it to affect him during the full moon, but not so much that he actually goes all the way when the time comes; just a bit furry and hungrier for raw meat."

"Little awkward, but at least it's not the full way; it's difficult enough for you guys as it is," Piper sighed, shaking her head slightly as she looked over at Buffy with a slight smile. "Y'know, I still can't believe that Oz actually stuck around when he got back; he knew from the beginning that it was gonna be kinda… odd, for lack of a better term."

"Hey; he had two hot girls who were both interested in him _and _access to the most powerful witches on the face of the planet to help him control his inner wolf?" Angel chuckled, a slight grin on his face as he looked over at Willow. "He'd have been stupid _not _to do it."

Buffy, Willow and Piper couldn't help but chuckle slightly at Angel's comment; even after all the years his various human friends and allies had spent encouraging him to loosen up, it still sometimes struck them as strange to hear Angel talking like he was just a normal human being rather than a tortured vampire with a conscience.

Despite that, however, they had to agree with his assessment of the situation; Oz had some very good reasons for sticking around after he'd returned from his quest to 'control the wolf within'. Initially Willow's conflicted feelings for both him and Tara had seemed to be a serious problem, particularly when Oz nearly lost control of his wolf and attacked Tara in a jealous rage, but with no major threat to deal with at the time, the rest of the Scooby Gang had been able to devote more time to helping their friends solve their current dilemma. The fact that the final suggestion actually came from Anya- that, since Willow would be miserable to a greater or lesser extent if either Oz or Tara left, she should just date both of them- never failed to surprise the groups, but it had worked out well for the most part. Piper still insisted that Willow and Tara refrain from kissing in front of the kids until they were old enough to understand the concept of homosexuality, and Leo's old-fashioned family values sometimes meant that he was still sometimes unnerved by the whole concept- as demons, Angel, Spike and Cole had done so much that any standards that had existed when they were born barely seemed relevant to them any more-, but apart from that everyone had generally accepted the three-way relationship and left Willow, Tara and Oz to do what they wanted.

A couple of years ago, in the aftermath of her brief magical addiction- it had taken all three of the Charmed Ones demonstrating some of the consequences of their 'no personal gain' rule to snap her out of that one- Willow had given birth to a young girl, who they'd named Joyce in memory of Buffy's mother- coincidentally, her birth occurred almost exactly a year after Joyce died of a brain tumour, one of the reasons why her 'three' parents had named the little girl after Joyce in the first place-, and Oz and Tara were now trying for a child of their own. It had taken them longer to get comfortable with each other than it had taken Willow to accept the idea that she could be attracted to both of them at once, but after the two of them had exchanged a brief kiss one patrol, things had just snowballed along from there; Tara still saw herself as gay, but generally considered that Oz was like an exception to the rule or something like that.

"Well, if we wanted normal lives to bring up our children in, we wouldn't all be hanging out together," Piper said, shrugging nonchalantly before she glanced over at Angel with a small smile. "Which reminds me, on the topic of kids, where's our favourite first nephew?"

"_And _my godson, come to that?" Willow added, placing her hands on her hips as she looked critically at him.

"Oh, they're watching a couple of movies up in Connor's room," Angel said, smiling slightly at the witch. "You know those two; if their cousins aren't here, they loves watching anything with a bit of a fight scene in it."

"And how is that any different to what they like doing when their cousins _are _all here?" Buffy asked teasingly, raising a jokingly critical eyebrow as she glanced over at Willow and Piper, both of whom chuckled slightly. There was no denying the Slayer's point; whenever Connor got the opportunity to pick a movie, he always picked something with decent 'combat scenes', despite the fact that his movie options were typically limited to Disney productions, regardless of whether he was alone or had his extended family round; regardless of the lives they lived, the parents were all agreed that their children wouldn't see any movies they weren't old enough to see yet.

It was moments like that, however- seeing Buffy joking around with Piper about Connor as though he were her own- that made Angel love her even more. It had been hard at first, he wasn't denying that, but that only served to make him all the more grateful for her genuine affection towards Connor, regardless of how he'd come into the world in the first place.

Connor's presence in their lives had been one of the most difficult changes they'd needed to get used to in their lives, not least because he was the first child any of them ever had (Wyatt was born a couple of months after him). Angel's rejection of them all after Darla's resurrection had never gone down well with most of the team, coming as it did so shortly after they'd managed to work out a way to save Cole from going completely insane from the extra powers he'd possessed.

If it hadn't been for Angel, Spike and Doyle constantly arguing that Cole deserved a chance to be the man he once was, Phoebe had sometimes felt like just giving up on the former Belthazor. As it was, thanks to the two vampires and the other half-demon, the Halliwells and Willow had finally been convinced to try and transfer some of Cole's powers to other members of the group, subsequently stripping them of their new powers with a potion. With only one power being taken from them at a time, the powers wouldn't automatically transfer to another demon, and Cole was eventually back to a less extreme level of power, possessing only the ability to shimmer, generate energy balls and a slight degree of superhuman strength; the groups estimated that he was about as strong as Doyle, maybe a little more or less, but since he generally used his energy balls they'd never really had much opportunity to test his limits.

The combined members of the Scooby Gang, the Charmed Ones, and Angel Investigations had genuinely felt that, after they'd all worked together to save Cole, Angel was finally seeing all of them as family- the Charmed Ones and some of the Scoobies in particular had always felt a little surplus when Angel was spending time with his team, Buffy or Cole- and then he'd started treating them all like they were just something that had ended up stuck on his shoe and he wanted rid of as soon as possible. Even after his epiphany, followed by the Charmed Ones finally perfecting the spell that would make his soul permanent, it had taken him and Buffy a while to get their relationship back to what it had been, and Connor's arrival had almost ruined all that work anyway; the fact that Angel had actually _tried _to lose his soul wasn't something that could just be put to one side and forgotten about like that. Buffy had stopped visiting Angel and the rest of the Los Angeles team after that for some while, and had come worryingly close to having an affair with Spike to try and get back at Angel, but Spike's refusal- he hated the idea of being second choice; at least Dru had actually chosen him because she _liked _him, rather than just wanting to get back at Angel- had forced her to realise what she was doing, although she had still refused to speak to her former lover even after breaking out of near-self-destructive rampage.

It hadn't been easy for the assorted groups to adjust to the rift Connor had created at first, with them all forced to 'choose' between working with Buffy or with Angel; although most of the group tried to divide their time equally, Angel and Cole's close friendship meant that the Charmed Ones generally sided with Angel on these matters, particularly after all the effort they'd put into finding a way to anchor his soul. After Buffy had finally been convinced to come and visit Angel's team after Paige only just managed to save Connor being taken into an alternate dimension by an old enemy of Angel's from his Angelus days- a vampire hunter called Daniel Holtz-, she'd practically fallen in love with Connor the first time she really saw him, rapidly falling into the role of his 'step-mother' (Although none of them ever referred to her as such) as she and Angel practically picked up where they'd left off. There'd been a brief bit of tension between Buffy and Paige for a short time after the Slayer's return to Angel's life- Paige and Angel had become closer during his and Buffy's estrangement- but Paige freely admitted that she doubted that anything could have ever come of it; Angel had loved Buffy long before she arrived on the scene, and she found it unlikely she'd manage to get in between a relationship like that after only a couple of years.

From then on, Connor had rapidly become a permanent fixture in the team's monthly meetings, rapidly appointing himself the 'protector' of the other children whenever they were born. He'd grown particularly attached to Penny, the second-oldest of the group's children, almost as soon as he'd been able to crawl over to her; these days he spent so much time with her that Phoebe and Buffy sometimes joked that they should probably hold the wedding now and get it over with. Even after Paige's attempts to heal Angel from a near-fatal wound sustained when he'd tried to attack Zankou had resulted in him becoming human enough to have kids- along with other bonuses like an increased tolerance to sunlight- and he and Buffy had conceived their now one-year-old son Liam Rupert Summers, Connor still remained a close part of their lives, and it was almost impossible to tell that Buffy was anything but his biological mother.

"Well, never mind the minor details like that," Angel said, raising a nonchalant eyebrow as he indicated his desks. "I'm still checking over the files from Wolfram & Hart to make sure we haven't missed something that could come back to bite us in the asses at some point; you guys care to help me check over them right now?"

"Sure thing," Piper said, nodding with a brief smile at the vampire as she and Buffy walked behind the desk to study the files. "Just so long as you get that we stop as soon as the rest of the gang gets here; I don't mind attending to a _little _business right now, but when the kids get here, it's family time, OK?"

"Talking of business," Buffy said, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over at Piper, "have you guys heard from Spike yet? I think Liam's kinda been missing his 'Uncle Ike' these last few days."

"Oh yeah; he's got a couple of loose ends he wants to track down regarding a vampire nest we took out a while back- long-term independent project of his, really; he made it clear he'll only ask for our help if he thinks he needs it-, but he'll be around for the dinner by the time the rest of the gang gets here," Piper replied, chuckling slightly at the familiar nickname that Buffy and Angel's first son had unintentionally given Spike when he'd first tried to pronounce the vampire's name.

To this day, Spike's presence on the team remained the only positive, albeit surprising, legacy left by the Initiative all those years ago. After discovering that the electric shocks he'd sustained in the battle had 'fused' the chip into his brain so deeply that Paige couldn't guarantee she could orb it out without taking a chunk of his brain with it, Spike had resigned himself to remaining with them so that he could at least channel his frustrations against demons, although he'd moved to San Francisco so that he didn't have to work with people who'd had direct confrontations with him where he'd been trying to kill them.

It had been difficult for him to get used to the idea of working with the 'good guys', of course- he often tried to 'remind' the Charmed Ones that he was evil by doing little things like smoking inside and occasionally coming close to betraying them to their enemies- but, over time, he'd actually come to enjoy his time with the witches, risking his life to protect Dawn in particular on more than one occasion, and even developing a certain friendship with Chris, Cole and Doyle as time went on (Although his 'friendship' with Doyle primarily consisted of them competing against each other in drinking contests). Although matters had been complicated after he began to develop feelings for Buffy, nothing had even come of it; although his frustration about dealing with her unrequited feelings had nearly driven him to rape on one occasion, when he'd realised what he'd done, he'd actually left on a quest to become a man who wouldn't do something like that, culminating in him acquiring his own soul so that he wouldn't do something like that again.

From then on, things had become increasingly more relaxed between Spike and the group, all of them finally more accepting of him now that he was restrained by something more than a mere lump of metal in his head (They still hadn't actually extracted the chip, but it was at least no longer the only reason he stayed with them). Ironically, Angel had actually become his main advocate after Spike had acquired his soul, saying that the person Spike was now wasn't the same person who'd attacked Buffy. The two vampires would never be entirely relaxed around each other, but, that aside, they generally managed to work well whenever they were facing the crisis of the day.

Any leisure time the two vampires spent together commonly resulted in both of them hurling insults at each other like they were a couple of six-year-olds, of course, but by this point everyone else just found that part of their behaviour funny.

"Geeze…" Buffy winced as she looked at the file now in her hand, detailing a certain dark warlock client's attempts to summon a demon using the blood of some. "How do you _do _something like that to a guy and leave him alive?"

"With difficulty," Angel replied simply, as he tossed another file to the side; Spike and Piper had already killed the Fell Brethren during the assault on the Black Thorn, so there was no point in him keeping the file on him. "Trust me; you'd be surprised what you can live through if the other guy really _wants _you to stay alive."

"Yeah; can we _not _get into that right now?" Piper asked, shuddering slightly as she took a brief, curious look at the file Buffy was studying and then looked away, clearly wishing that she hadn't looked. "I got enough torture threats when dealing with… y'know… the _other _you…"

Angel and Buffy didn't need to ask what she meant by that; Piper's encounter with Angel's would-be future self had come far too close for any of them. If they'd just been a few seconds later, Piper would have either been killed or turned- while still pregnant with Chris on top of everything else-, leaving them in a position that none of them had been that eager to be in. It had taken everything Doyle, Gunn and Paige- the three to discover Piper and Angelus at the last minute- had possessed just to hold the powerful vampire back until Piper could escape to the sunlight, and by that point Angel had arrived and Angelus had decided to cut his losses and escape.

That particular experience, of course, was only part of a dark moment in the lives of everyone in the group that they definitely wouldn't want to relive; quite frankly, the whole 'Wyatt-would-have-grown-up-to-be-evil-and-rule-the-world-if-Leo-hadn't-killed-Gideon' thing was still a touchy subject among the various heroes, although they'd all agreed that their actions were the only way they could have averted that future. Of course, given that Wyatt's future had included a restored Angelus, a chipless, soulless Spike, a permanently wolfed-out Oz and a resurrected Belthazor as Wyatt's key enforcers, with Buffy, Faith, Willow, Tara and Doyle held captive to provide Wyatt with the opportunities he needed to figure out how to use their powers for himself, it was hardly surprising none of them wanted to discuss it.

The months between when Wyatt had managed to send the four demons back to the past to ensure that his time came to pass regardless of Chris's actions and their deaths while Piper was giving birth to baby-Chris remained one of the worst periods of their lives. Willow still had nightmares about seeing Future-Oz die in agony from the silver blade she'd stuck in his heart, and even now Xander still got slightly uncomfortable whenever he was forced to spend too much time alone with Angel after Angelus had torn one eye out and nearly cut his left hand off. Buffy and Phoebe tried to be angry at him for his illogical fears- they constantly pointed out to him that _Angel _would never do anything like that- but given that Belthazor had come worringly close to raping Phoebe during his time in the past, leaving her instinctively terrified of Cole for the next few months or so, neither of them could entirely put that much effort into an argument where they could so easily see at least part of the other guy's point of view.

Fortunately, further morbid thoughts on dreary topics were averted when the doors to the hotel opened again, revealing a former demonic assassin, his wife, their daughter, and one or two of their nieces and nephews hurrying along beside them while the two youngest were pushed in front of them in prams.

"Cole!" Angel grinned, stepping out from behind the desk to shake his old friend's hand as Cole released the hand of the little girl beside him; Penny Halliwell-Turner was sometimes a bit of a clingy child, but she could easily be released and trusted not to do anything stupid. "How's things with you?"

"Oh, the usual," Cole shrugged nonchalantly as he reached over to ruffle Penny's hair, ignoring the glare his first-born shot up at her father as he looked back at his friend. "The legal games as tricky as ever- I never really realised how many demons were available to limit the workload I myself had to do when I was a lawyer the first time around- but, that aside, it's all good."

"Glad to hear it," Buffy said, giving Cole a brief thumbs-up. After he'd finally managed to find a decent compromise in his life- no longer a demon, but still possessing the power to make a difference in the fight against evil-, Cole had gone back into the corporate game, and finally managed to get a job at another law firm. His law degrees may have been altered slightly to incorporate his age- it would have been hard to explain how a man seemingly in his late twenties could have taken a course in law in the 1920s- but they were all still fully legal and valid in the present, so him getting caught out for practicing law with an out-of-date degree was never going to be an issue. Typically he served as the agency's legal adviser whenever they were carrying out their investigations- always making sure that, if they were hired to take on a purely human client, they didn't do anything that would prevent the evidence obtained from being valid in a court of law- although he'd temporarily transferred to Wolfram & Hart when they took control of it in the aftermath of the Beast's massacre of the people within it.

And, of course, after they'd 'averted' the Avatars' attempts to bring about world peace; none of them were still entirely comfortable with Lilah's explanation that world peace has to come at a price and the Avatars had understood that better than they did, but generally they accepted that evil didn't see things the same way they did and left it at that.

"Anyway," Phoebe said, smiling slightly as she looked at her sister and their friends, "enough about work; how's things going on the party front?"

"As good as you'd expect, seeing as how Buffy, Piper and I only got back a few minutes ago," Willow explained, shrugging slightly apologetically at the seer and her husband. "We've still got to put everything together, but we've got everything ready to start getting the meal set up; just give us a couple of hours and it'll all be good."

"Well then," Cole said, a slight grin on his face as he picked up Chris in one arm and took Penny's small hand in the other, "while you guys attend to that, Angel and I'll just take these little rascals up to the TV room until dinner's ready, OK?"

"What, you're just _automatically _leaving the women to do the cooking?" Phoebe retorted, folding her arms as she stared slightly teasingly at her husband.

Cole shrugged.

"Do you _really _want to leave the meals in the hands of a guy whose diet was limited to varying kinds of blood for the last two and a half centuries and a demon who generally didn't cook in the human way for almost a hundred years?" he asked, a teasing grin on his face. "It's not a sexist attitude, it's just practicality; you're all a lot better at this kind of thing than we are."

"Fair enough," Piper said, a slight grin on her face- she knew as well as anyone that they hadn't meant anything by that comment- as she looked at the children gathered around Cole and Phoebe. "You guys just head on upstairs with your uncles/ fathers/ whichever one you're related to in whatever way, OK, guys? We'll call you down when the food's ready."

"_OK, Aunt Piper_," the children replied simultaneously- those of them who could speak, anyway; a couple of the younger ones still hadn't quite mastered the ability to talk yet, but their enthusiastic smiles were all their relatives needed to confirm that they were happy with the proposed arrangement.

"Right then," Angel smiled, as he reached over to take Nick's hand, the small half-werewolf standing just behind Phoebe, as be took hold of one of the prams in his other hand, "just send Leo up with Chris and Wyatt when he arrives, OK?"

"We'll bear it in mind," Buffy said, leaning over to give him a brief kiss (Ignoring the exaggerated 'gagging' sounds the children made as she did so). "You guys have fun."

"Always do," Cole smiled. Reaching down, he took the childrens' hands, looked upwards as though he was studying the ceiling, closed his eyes, and shimmered away.

Rolling his eyes at his friend's actions- Cole _always _liked to shimmer the kids to another location when he wouldn't risk giving away their secret, even if he only needed to travel a short distance to reach his destination-, Angel took the hands of the remaining children and walked up the stairs towards Connor's room, arriving at his son's room no more than a minute after leaving the others; the kids could walk surprisingly fast when they tried.

"Oh, you're here at last?" Cole asked as he opened the door, smiling almost pityingly at Angel as he shook his head. "I tell you, it must be _so _frustrating to be limited to walking everywhere you want to go…"

"Cole; shut it," Angel retorted, the grin on his face making it clear that he really didn't mind about his friend's joking attitude. "How's things going in there?"

"Oh, the usual," Cole shrugged as he opened the door, revealing the children all clustered around the chairs as they looked at the television before them, currently playing _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_. The film was close to the conclusion, Angel noted- Phoebus was just giving his speech to the people about Frollo having declared war on Notre-Dame herself- but he doubted any of the children cared; they'd all seen it at least once before, and Connor and Liam would be perfectly happy to see it again once it was over for their cousins' 'sake'. "They're all acting like they've been granted a taste of nirvana the moment they saw what the movie was-"

As soon as the words were out of Cole's mouth, the children gathered around Angel had dashed forward to cluster around the screen, Nick only just avoiding Angel's half-hearted attempt to catch him as he ran.

"Typical," Angel sighed as he looked back at his friend. "Give the kids a TV and they completely forget that you're even in the same room."

"No we don't!" Connor called over to his father, a broad grin on his face. "It's just funner than you!"

"_Ouch_," Cole whispered, mockingly clutching at his heart as he looked at his friend. "Think I could fake a cardiac arrest to make a point?"

"Cole, that stopped being effective the _twentieth _time you did it; I think we're past the point where the kids believe you can even _have _a heart attack," Angel retorted, a slight smirk on his face as he spoke. "Let's just sit down, OK; the kids'll start paying attention to us once more while the movie's rewinding."

As Angel and Cole turned their attention back to the television before them, the two former half-demons smiled slightly as they heard the lyrics of the song currently being sung as the film neared its end.

"_Soooooo, here is a riddle_

_To guess if you can_

_Sing the bells of Notre-Dame!_

_What makes a monster_

_And what makes a man_?"

Even as their children clapped enthusiastically at the singing currently taking place on the screen before them- they always clapped when watching singing together; Piper and Angel attributed it to them spending so much time with Lorne when he gave them 'private performances' that they felt obligated to clap when anyone was singing in their presence-, Cole and Angel exchanged a small smile at the lyrics.

As they'd learned a long time ago, when facing a group of people who claimed to be doing 'the right thing' when they tortured potentially innocent people solely for not being human, it was never an easy thing to draw a distinction between what made somebody human and what made them a monster, but, when push came to shove, what really counted would always be made obvious.

For Angel and Cole, the true test of humanity came when a person was in a position where they had to choose between hurting a potential enemy or helping a potential friend; you could talk about doing 'the right thing', but if you didn't make the decision to help others because you preferred to hurt people, you were almost less than human. Humanity wasn't a matter of what a person was biologically; it was a matter of what a person was in the _spiritual _sense.

As the two former killers looked down at the children now gathered around them, both directly related biologically and assorted nephews and nieces, they both allowed themselves a small smile as they studied the family they'd built around themselves over the last few years. Some of them may not be entirely human in the biological sense, and some of them may have been far older than their significant others, but all of them were linked to each other by ties almost stronger than mere blood; for all their problems, in the final moment, they'd die for each other, and that was all that mattered.

"Daddy?" Connor's small voice suddenly said, the oldest child of the group around them tugging slightly on his father's finger. "What's funny?"

"Nothing, Connor," Angel said, smiling affectionately down at his son. "I'm just… just happy, is all."

Connor smiled warmly up at his father at that, before he moved in closer to the former vampire and hugged him.

"I love you, Daddy," he said simply.

"I love you too, son," Angel replied, wrapping one arm around his child and squeezing him gently.

"We all do, kiddo," Cole added, reaching over to ruffle Connor's hair even as he affectionately hugged Penny where she lay against him, her eyes only half-open as she looked up at her father. "We're one weird family, I admit, but you can count on _that_, got me?"

"Gotcha, Unca Cole," Connor replied, smiling back warmly at the demon formerly known as Belthazor. As he snuggled back up against his father, Angel and Cole exchanged brief glances with each other, and smiled reassuringly at their friends.

Their lives may have been complicated over the last few years, as their teams shared the hardships and challenges that their roles as Earth's champions against evil had forced them to confront, but, if asked, both former killers knew that they wouldn't have traded them away for anything.


End file.
